


The Jess Situation: Part Deux

by badwolfchild



Series: I'm a Book Half Unread [9]
Category: Gilmore Girls
Genre: Bi!Jess, Family Drama, Family Feels, Humor, Multi, Panic Attacks, Secrets Revealed, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:02:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfchild/pseuds/badwolfchild
Summary: A lot of great things happen to Jess after the events of the dance. He has an amazing new boyfriend, he hasn't gotten into any big fights with his uncle, if anything, him and Luke have been getting along better than ever. There is a small bump in the road when Richard ambushes them with a trip to Yale, but Luke surprisingly doesn't get on his case about college. Things are great......Until a guy shows up in the diner, causing chaos in his wake.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be another three parter.
> 
> By the way, if anyone has any suggestions for this series, drop me a line. I have a few key things I'm going to cover, so I can't make any promises, but chances are I'll add it.

Jess comes to consciousness slowly after one of the most restful sleeps of his life.

 

“Comfy?” He feels more than he hears.

 

Humming in the affirmative, he lifts his head up a little, resting his chin on Oliver’s chest. “Hi.”

 

“Hi.” Oliver starts to chuckle when Jess won’t stop staring with a dopey grin. “What?”

 

“I’m just making sure this isn’t a dream.”

 

“Oh, you dream about me often, Mr. Mariano?” Oliver says teasingly.

 

“Oh, heavens no, Mr. Stone. See, I’m just an innocent young man from a small town. If my eyes aren’t deceiving me,  _ you’re _ the one that crawled into  _ my _ bed.”

 

Oliver snorts. “Innocent? I have it on good authority that you are the resident bad boy of Stars Hollow. Everything from garden gnomes to street corners became at risk ever since you showed up.”

 

Jess sits up a little, his weight shifting to his elbows. “Hey, they never proved it was me that made the fake crime scene.”

 

“And the gnome?”

 

“Pierpont has been safely residing in his yard for the past year now.”

 

“Oh, well, in that case…” Oliver reaches up, capturing Jess’ lips in his own. A moment later he pulls back slowly and smiles. “Hi.” He says again.

 

“Hi.” Jess says before lying back down with a yawn. “I could stay here forever.”

 

“It’s two in the afternoon.”

 

Closing his eyes, Jess shrugs. “Yes, your point being?”

 

“We should get up.” Jess groans. “I know, but it’s like jet lag, you have to fight through the sleepiness.”

 

“Why are you so insistent on this? Scared Luke is going to walk in or something?” He waits a beat, but no answer comes. Lifting his head, he stares at Oliver in disbelief. “Oh my god, you’re scared of Luke, aren’t you?”

 

“What? No, of course not. Why would I- I mean- Look, just because I  _ may have _ pretended to still be asleep earlier when he came in to grab something does not mean-” Jess raises a brow, amused. Oliver sighs. “Okay, fine, I find him scary, but that’s only because he’s basically your dad, and he seems like the kind of guy that would be cleaning the biggest gun he owns when I come by while casually inferring he knows six different ways of hiding my body where no one would ever find me again.”

 

Jess scoffs. “That’s ridiculous. Luke doesn’t own any guns, he hates them. And he wouldn’t need to infer it, it’s common knowledge that he’s friends with Jackson, of course they wouldn’t find your body, but the squash will be especially chatty that year.”

 

“Jess!”

 

“I’m kidding, jeez! Lighten up a little, would ya?”

 

“You’re a jerk.” Oliver is smirking when he says it, so Jess knows he’s not mad. 

 

“A jerk who’s a great kisser.”

 

“Well, at least you’re modest.” They kiss again. “But, unfortunately, I was serious about getting up. I need to head home and work on this article for the seventy-five anniversary edition of the Franklin.”

 

Jess pouts, wrapping his arm more securely around his waist. “Just do it from here.” He mummers into his neck. “You can stay another night, I still have your extra uniform in my closet from before and I know Rory wouldn’t say no to a ride to Chilton tomorrow.”

 

Oliver sits up anyway, prying Jess off him. “Yes, because me trying to work on an article here last time worked out so well.” He says sarcastically. “Look, I promise Monday after school I will come straight here, okay?”

 

Jess sighs. “Fine,” He watches Oliver lace up his shoes. “But I get to pick the movie.”

 

“Deal.” Oliver stands, shrugging his coat on. “Kiss?”

 

Jess smirks, leaning up. “You don’t have to tell me twice.” He closes his eyes, shocked at how familiar this is already. “Call me tonight?”

 

“Will do. Bye, and don’t sleep much more.”

 

Jess rolls his eyes, lying back down. “Okay, Mom.”

 

He closes his eyes after the door shuts, burying his face in his pillow that still smells of Oliver. His door opens again soon after. “Hey.” 

 

… And Luke effectively ruined the moment.

 

Opening his eyes, he sits up again, watching Luke hover in the doorway. “Hey.”

 

“So, um,” He closes the door, meandering in. “You look happy.”

 

Jess can’t fight the grin that grows on his face. “I am.” He says sincerely.

 

His uncle grins back. “Good, I’m glad.” He grin vanishes as he takes off his hat and scrubs at his hair. “Look, this is awkward, so I’m just gonna come out with it. Did you two, um, you know…” He waves his hands back and forth.

 

“What? Have sex?” He asks as a joke. When Luke doesn’t laugh he realizes that’s really what he meant. “Wait, you think- Luke, I had been awake for over twenty-four hours. I was out before I even reached the bed. We were both too exhausted to even change our clothes, let alone do what you’re thinking. Trust me, when we do I’ll be sure to hang a sock on the door.”

 

That snaps Luke out of whatever haze he was in. “Hey! There will be no hanging of socks under my roof!”

 

“Alright, chill, it was a joke. That’s what the back seat of a car is for.”

 

“Jess!”

 

“Okay, I’m done. You need to learn to take a joke.”

 

Luke huffs. “How about you just work on a better routine there, Lenny Bruce. And since we're on the topic of rules, there are gonna be a few new ones. See this door? From now on, when the two of you are up here, it stay open.” 

 

“Okay.” Jess agrees, humoring him.

 

“And the bed sharing, that was a one time thing. You know I don’t mind him staying over, but when he does, one of you will be on the bed and the other will be on the couch. Are we clear?”

 

“Just one question. If we ever go to some dance, do you want us to leave room for Jesus too there, Reverend Luke?” Luke shakes his head, not dignifying that with a response as he heads back downstairs.

 

000000000000000000000000000

 

There was surprisingly little fanfare around town once Jess started going out with Oliver, like suspiciously little fanfare. None of the usual gossips mentioned anything to him. Miss Patty, Babette, even East Side Tillie were all radio silent. Someone so much as litters in this four block science experiment and they’re gabbing about it, but him? They don’t so much as mention it in passing. He doesn’t get it. He knows they know, he hasn’t exactly been subtle about his new relationship status, so why aren’t they making a bigger deal about it?

 

Jess leans against the counter, chewing the end of the pencil as he watches Miss Patty and Babette chat outside the dance school.

 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Luke asks as he finishes replacing the coffee filter. “And stop chewing on that.” He bats his hand away.

 

Jess tosses the pencil down. “They have some nerve, you know that?”

 

“Who? Is someone giving you a bad time? Because if they are I told you to send them my way.”

 

“No, I’m talking about the chatty hens over there.” Jess nods his head across the street.

 

Luke looks where he gestured to. “Who? Babette and Miss Patty? Did they say something about you and Oliver?”

 

“No, the opposite. It’s been a week and they haven’t said a damn thing. Last spring when I kissed Chuck I couldn’t get them off my back for  _ months, _ but now that I’m actually  _ dating _ a guy they’ve been as quiet as church mice. I just don’t get it.”

 

Luke crosses his arms and fights down a grin. “Let me get this straight, you’re annoyed that they  _ aren’t _ bothering you?”

 

Jess shifts. “Well, when you say it like that…”

 

“It sounds crazy?” He finishes his sentence. “Because it is. Jess, I thought you of all people would be glad they aren’t gossiping about you. What has you so paranoid?”

 

“Hey, just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get me. And what if they’re talking about me behind my back again like they did when I first got here. For all we know, they could be talking about the Jess Situation: Part Deux right this second.”

 

Luke can’t help but laugh. “Jess, do you even hear yourself? They are not plotting against you.”

 

“That you know of.”

 

Luke shakes his head, giving up on trying to talk sense. “Let me know when you arrive back on planet Earth.” He heads to the back.

 

0000000000000000000

 

Jess waits impatiently as Luke finishes locking up. “You’re not going to find anything.”

 

“That’s what you thought before, and yet you did.” Luke stuffs his hands in his pockets as they head for the dance studio, shaking his head.

 

“Hey, Jess! This is a nice surprise.” Lorelai and Rory catch up with them. “Where’s the other half? Isn’t he usually the one that drags you to town meetings?” 

 

“Oliver is in Florida visiting his grandparents. I’m coming to find out what the others are really saying about me behind my back.”

 

Luke sighs. “He’s paranoid they’re holding another secret meeting, the ‘Jess Situation: Part Deux’ as he called it.”

 

“Well, you know what they say, just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you.” Lorelai points out.

 

Luke throws his hands into the air. “Great, there’s two of you now, you guys should go out and get matching tin hats.”

 

“Mine’s all polished and ready to go. You?” Lorelai turns to Jess.

 

He snaps his fingers. “Damn, left it next to my ham radio. Call next time, we’ll coordinate.”

 

Luke falls back next to Rory. “Why do we put up with them?” He mutters.

 

She shrugs. “They’re family, what could ya do?”

 

They make their way inside, Luke making a ‘I told you so’ face to Jess when, surprise surprise, they find no ‘secret meeting’ taking place.

 

“The night’s still young.” He mutters back as they take their seats.

 

0000000000000000000

 

Jess spends the whole meeting waiting for the other shoe to drop. He sits through the usual nonsense, forcing himself to pay attention so he doesn’t miss a thing. An hour passes and nothing happens. Taylor doesn’t even look in his direction.

 

The town selectman bangs his gavel. “Seeing as how it’s getting late, I say we wrap this up and be on our way. Goodnight, everyone.” With one final knock, Jess looks around in disbelief as everyone starts packing up.

 

Luke pats him on the back. “Sorry, kid. Guess you were paranoid for nothing.”

 

Jess ignores him, standing up. “Alright, very funny. You guys really had me going for a minute.”

 

Luke crosses his arms, using one hand to rub his temples. “Ah, jeez.”

 

Everyone stops and turns to him. Taylor has an irritated look on his face as he quits talking to Miss Patty next to him and leans forward on his podium. “The meeting is over, young man. If you had an issue to bring up, you should have spoken up while we were still taking concerns. I’ve ended this session already, meaning you’ll just have to wait until next week.”

 

Jess scoffs. “Seriously? Come on, man. Just give it up already. I know about the secret meeting you’re all off to now.”

 

Taylor cocks his head to the side. “What secret meeting? Luke, is he having some sort of fit? What is he talking about?” 

 

Luke just continues to hide behind his hand as he shakes his head, wanting to have no part in this.

 

“Do you think I’m an idiot?”

 

Taylor clicks his tongue. “Well…”

 

“The meeting! The secret meetings you all seem to love so much! The ones where everyone gets together and gossips about me like bored housewives!”

 

Taylor sighs. “You really think we have nothing better to do with our time than get together and talk about you? And what, pray tell, would we even talk about?”

 

“Me and Oliver. How us starting to date last week doesn’t mesh with the nineteen-fifties aesthetic this town has going or some bull like that.” 

 

“Last week?” Taylor turns to Miss Patty. “But you said they became an item months ago.”

 

“That’s what Babette told me.” She points at Babette.

 

“It’s true! Jess was takin’ him around the town, introducin’ him to everyone! Then afterwards, Morey an’ I were takin’ our afternoon stroll when we saw them havin’ a secluded lunch together by the lake! All  _ very _ romantic like. Right, Morey?” She nudges her husband’s side.

 

“Very romantic spot.” Morey nods.

 

“Didn’t they come together to the town meeting that day too?” Andrew points out.

 

“How could we forget?” Gypsy cuts in. “Lover boy here was practically drooling over him the whole time. It was extremely distracting.”

 

Jess flushes. “Wha- I wasn’t- That wasn’t a date!”

 

“But Babette just said it was.” Taylor points his gavel at Babette.

 

“And I’m saying it wasn’t!” He honestly can’t believe he’s actually having this argument right now.

 

“Now, now, no need to raise your voice, young man, we are not howler monkeys. How about this, everyone in favor of the lunch in question being a date, raise your hand.”

 

Jess watches in disbelief as everyone except him and Luke raise their hands. “Even you two?” He groans at Lorelai and Rory.

 

They both shrug. “Sorry.” Rory apologizes.

 

“They are making a pretty good argument.” Lorelai explains.

 

“Everyone opposed?” Taylor asks, to which Jess is the only one to raise his hand. He bangs the gavel. “Then it’s decided that the lunch was, in fact, a date. Now, if that is all, I think everyone would like to get home.”

 

All Jess can do is sputter as everyone gets up and leaves for good. Luke stands up next to him. “You wanted your relationship debated in a public forum? Congratulations, you just got it.” He pats him on the back, knocking him out of the daze he was in.

 

“Yeah, and thanks for all the support there, Uncle Luke.” He spits out. “I could really feel the love as you hid behind your hand the entire time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go call my boyfriend and inform him that, apparently, the two of us have been dating for the past two months without either of us knowing it.” Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he storms out of the dance hall to get away from all the nut jobs in town.

 

He makes it as far as across the street before Rory yells for him to wait up. Against his better judgment, he slows down his pace to give her a chance to catch up. “Wow, you are fast when you wanna be.”

 

“Yeah, spite’s a great motivator. Thanks for the back up by the way.” 

 

“Would you calm down, grumpy gills? It was just a joke.”

 

Jess lets out a sharp laugh. “And yet I don’t remember laughing.” He speeds up, causing her to speed up too.

 

“Listen, could you stop? I’m not in the right shoes here to pull a Forest Gump.” He makes a dead stop, making her stumble so she doesn’t run into him. “Oh, thank you.”

 

“What’d ya want, Rory?” He wishes she would just get to the point.

 

“Well, I was thinking, since Oliver is out of town and you obviously don’t wanna be around Stars Hollow, that you would want to go on this road trip to visit Yale with me and my mom and my grandparents tomorrow.”

 

He sighs. “Rory, we’ve talked about this. I’m not interested in going to college, let alone some fancy Ivy league like Yale.”

 

“I know, and I promise this isn’t me trying to get you to change your mind. Grandpa told me last week that he’s meeting some acapella group that he had gone to school with and thought he’d make a trip out of it, show off where he had gone to school, and then when he’s at the dinner we can do some fun things. You know Yale has like, fifteen libraries, and he said he can get us a day pass for  _ all _ of them.”

 

He bites his bite, more than a little tempted by the promise of seeing some of the rare editions he’s heard of Yale having. “Jeez, I don’t know, Rory. This sounds like more of a family thing between you guys and your grandparents.”

 

She holds up her hands to stop him. “No, it’ll be fine. Grandpa actually invited you too. He wants you there, believe me.”

 

“I guess. If you’re sure I won’t be crashing.”

 

She gives him a wide grin. “He actually insisted that you come too. Although, between the two of us, I think it’s because he likes having another guy there. First my mom, and then me, he likes at least the illusion of having a grandson.”

 

“Well, us Gilmore guys have to stick together, being a rare breed and all.”

 

Jess lets Rory wrap her arm around his as she jumps up and down in excitement. He’d stop her, seeing as how they’re in public, but he’s learned the quickest way to get her to stop is to just let her get it all out of her system at once. “I’m so excited! This is going to be so much fun!”

 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be sure to bring my sparklers with me.” He says sarcastically as they start walking again, Rory still not loosening her grip. At least she stopped jumping.

 

“Oh! And don’t worry about telling Luke, Mom’s telling him now as we speak.”

 

Jess thinks about that for a second. “Wait. How can Lorelai being telling Luke? I  _ just _ agreed to go.”

 

“Oh, well, I  _ may have _ told her last week that you had already agreed to go so that  _ she _ would agree to go.”

 

“So you used me.”

 

“I wouldn’t say  _ used. _ More like… assumed you would say yes so she would come too.”

 

“So you used me.” He repeats.

 

“Ugh, fine, I used you. Happy?”

 

“Ecstatic.” He says in a deadpan tone. “But you know how you can  _ really _ make it up to me?” He smirks. “Helping me explain to Oliver how the entire town thinks we’ve been dating this whole time.”

 

“You’re never gonna let that go, are you?”

 

“Nope.” 

 

0000000000000000000

 

Jess is fuming as he jumps out of the cab, not even waiting for it to make a complete stop. He doesn’t wait for Lorelai or Rory as they get out at a slower pace, he just wants to be as far from people as he can, preferably in his room with his music at a deafening level.

 

“Whoa, kid, slow down. I know you’re pissed, trust me, I’m not exactly Miss Sunshine myself, but we’re not the ones to be mad at.” Lorelai places a hand on his shoulder.

 

He shrugs her off, spinning around to face her. “You know how I feel about college! How could you just let that happen! And you!” He turns his attention to Rory. “You gave me your word! You  _ promised _ me!”

 

Rory looks up from the sidewalk for the first time, crossing her arms tighter around herself. “I didn’t know he was going to trap us like that, I swear!”

 

Jess scoffs. “Bullshit.”

 

“Hey!” Lorelai jumps in, yelling just as loud as him now. He masks his shock behind his anger. He’s only heard Lorelai this pissed a handful of times, but never directed at him. Not even that time she caught him stealing a beer from her fridge. “You can be mad at me, you can be mad at my father, but you will  _ not _ talk to Rory like that again. Do you understand me?”

 

He continues scowling at Lorelai, but the moment his eyes land on Rory his face softens. She really was just as surprised as him when Richard led them in to meet the Dean of Admissions who ‘just so happened’ to be an old friend. He gives her a half shrug as his eyes shift around everywhere but on her. “Sorry.” He mumbles, feeling his temper melt away.

 

She gives him a reassuring smile, although it doesn’t reach her eyes. “It’s fine. You’re mad, I get it, I’m pretty upset myself.” They start heading for Luke’s again, this time at a slower pace. “I wish Grandpa would have given us a little bit of a heads up, I would have dressed way better than this and I could have brought my transcripts. I was in no way prepared.”

 

“It was kinda funny when he asked what you wanted to major in and you just stood there for a full minute before blurting out CNN.” Jess chuckles at the memory.

 

“That’s it, no more college talk for at least forty-eight hours.” Rory declares. “And at least I didn’t do an impression of a statue.” She adds after the fact.

 

“Hey, I’ve told you before. The verbal thing-”

 

“Comes and goes.” She finishes, rolling her eyes. “It was like I was doing the interview for the both of us.” 

 

“And a very good interpreter you made.”

 

0000000000000000

 

Luke finishes wiping off a table after the dinner rush when he hears yelling outside. He peers out the window and is surprised to see the fighting coming from Jess and Lorelai. Those two have been getting along great for months now, he really hopes this isn’t the start of another repeat from last year when the two fought like cats and dogs. It’s been peaceful having his nephew and friend getting along, maybe a little annoying when one encourages the other to keep going with whatever joke or bit they’re doing, but certainly better for his blood pressure.

 

Just when he’s about to run out and play referee, they seem to calm down and start heading his way. Not wanting to be caught spying, he heads over to the counter and makes it just as they walk in.

 

“Hey, how’d it go?” He asks like he’s been standing there the whole time.

 

“Fan-freakin’-tastic. I’m gonna go eat upstairs. Later.” Jess takes one of the bags of Hector’s Tacos (which, what?) and breezes past him.

 

“Bye, sweetie, and sorry again about today.” Lorelai says as her and Rory sit at a table with their own bags.

 

Jess waves in acknowledgment before running upstairs.

 

“Actually, Mom, I’m going to take my food and go see Dean, tell him about what happened. Is that okay?”

 

Lorelai nods, taking a few tacos out and handing the rest of the bag to Rory. “Yeah, of course, hon. I’ll see you at home later.”

 

“Thanks. Bye, Luke.”

 

Luke barely gets his own goodbye out before Rory is gone too. “And then there were two.” Lorelai says, giving him a smile as she rests her arms on the table. “Taco?”

 

“Um, no thanks. See, this is a diner, I serve food here. Most people don’t come  _ quite _ as prepared as you do.”

 

“Huh, you’re loss. They are supposedly the best tacos in New Haven.” She unwraps one, digging in.

 

Unsure of himself, Luke sets down the coffee pot on the table and takes a seat. “Speaking of New Haven, how, um, how’d that go? I heard you and Jess yelling, and the kids don’t seem to be in a great mood.”

 

Lorelai groans, putting down her taco with a little more force than necessary. “Well, to quote Jess, fan-freakin’-tastic. My father, the puppet master, struck again. This whole trip was one elaborate plan to get Jess and Rory to meet the Dean of Admissions at Yale.”

 

“Seriously?” Luke is understanding the teenagers’ moods a lot better now. For as long as he can remember, Harvard is the only school Rory has ever talked about going to. And as for Jess, from the very limited number of conversations they’ve had about college, Jess has made his opinion on post high school education  _ very _ clear.

 

“Unfortunately.”

 

Luke shakes his head as he stands. “I’m gonna go check on Jess then, just double check everything's okay.”

 

“Good idea. Look at you, getting the hang of this parenting gig.”

 

Luke pokes his head into the kitchen to let Caesar know he’ll be upstairs, then gives Lorelai a quick shrug as he passes again. “It’s still hit and miss. We fight about how he hogs the bathroom nearly every morning still.”

 

“You know, we really should have seen the whole boyfriend thing coming, just by how much time he spends on his hair alone.” Lorelai jokes.

 

“You know what they say about hindsight.”

 

Upstairs, Luke’s not too sure what he’s going to find, but he’s taking it as a good sign that he can’t hear any of Jess’ so-called ‘music’ blasting. Opening the door, Jess is lounging on the couch with his own bag of tacos, sock-clad feet up on the coffee table as he watches tv.

 

Luke makes his way over and joins his nephew on the couch, shucking off his own shoes and putting his feet up on the coffee table too. “Lorelai told me what happened.”

 

Jess sighs, resting his head back against the couch. “Luke, I really don’t wanna talk about it.”

 

He shrugs. “Fine by me.”

 

Jess lifts his head back up and eyes him. “Really?” He asks sceptically. “You’re seriously not gonna make me do some stupid Nick at Nite, heart-to-heart with you?”

 

“Nope. It’s a college conversation and we agreed I wouldn’t get on you about college things until December. Last I checked, it’s still November.”

 

“Oh. Cool.”

 

“I just have one question though, then I’ll drop this for good.” 

 

Jess groans as he slouches, setting his taco down in the wrapper on his lap. “ _ Knew _ this was too good to be true.” He mutters under his breath.

 

“Why you?” Jess looks at him, not quite following. “I just mean, I get why Richard would want Rory to go to Yale, he had gone there and wants his granddaughter to follow in his footsteps no doubt, but why insist you go to that interview too?” 

 

Jess shrugs, picking at his dinner. “When I asked him the same thing he just said Lorelai had passed going to college and he didn’t want to see another person throw away their potential. I guess Rory told him I wasn’t into the whole college route after high school and he just got carried away.” He trails off after that, clearly embarrassed by the whole thing.

 

Luke can’t believe he’s even thinking it, but he agrees with Richard on this one. The guy has obviously caught on to the fact that Jess is smart, and he’s absolutely right. With barely any effort, the kid is already brought his GPA up to a four point oh, and that’s counting all the honors classes he’s taking this year. Hell, had he been trying from the beginning, Luke has no doubt that he could have gotten into Chilton. He’s seen him help both Oliver and Rory out with their homework from that school without breaking a sweat. He could only imagine how great Jess could be if he went to a big school like Yale or Harvard where he would actually be challenged for once. But with no motivation to even try, Luke knows there’s no point bringing any of this up with Jess, and if he does try to push right now, Jess will only push back twice as hard. Maybe in December, when they finally do have that college chat together he’ll voice his opinions, but for now it’s best to just let the topic sit on the back burner.

 

“So,” Luke says, figuring Jess wants a change in conversation. “Lorelai was saying those are apparently the best tacos in New Haven. They living up to the hype?”

 

“They’re alright, but it’s New Haven, so bar was already set pretty low.” Jess digs in again, visibly relaxing. “Wanna try one?” He pulls one out from his bag.

 

“Ah, why not. I haven’t had dinner yet anyway.” He takes the offered food and unwraps it. He takes a bite and nods approvingly. “Now tell me, what the hell are we watching?”

 

“Scrubs.” He says with a mouthful.

 

“Seems pretty stupid to me.”

 

“I don’t know, I have a good feeling about it.” They sit in a comfortable silence for a while, focusing on the show in front of them. Luke is surprised when Jess mutes the tv once the commercials come on. He patiently waits for Jess to find his words. “Had he been up front about the dumb interview to start with, I probably would have done it.”

 

“Yeah?” Luke asks, trying not to sound too eager.

 

“I mean, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else, but what really pissed me off was how he went about it. He lied to me and Rory, decided to plan out our futures without even considering how we might feel about it. Adults have been making decisions about my life for as long as I can remember, would it really be too much to ask for them to just take two minutes and ask me what I think?”

 

Luke nods, guilt spiking in his gut when he realizes he’s done just that. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right.”

 

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That night, Jess waits for the snores from Luke signaling he’s asleep. Clicking his lamp on, he grabs his book off the nightstand and opens it to where he had slipped the Yale brochure in when no one was looking. He’s not sure what possessed him to keep it instead of crumbling it up and throwing it in the trash. It’s probably like he told Luke, just plain old morbid curiosity. Besides, even if he was interested and by some miracle  _ did _ get accepted, there’s no way in hell he could afford it. Mommy dearest doesn’t have that kind of money laying around and asking Luke for that kind of cash is out of the question too. The guy took him in without any complaint  _ and _ bought a freaking building just so he could have his own room, he’s not about to ask him to pay for what amounts to a scrap of paper and an extra line to add to his resume. Looking down at the tuition fees alone, it makes that building Luke bought look like chump change.

 

Shaking his head, Jess slips the brochure back between the pages and sets his book back on the nightstand, switching off his lamp afterwards.

 

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Weeks pass without any sort of drama as Thanksgiving draws near. There’s a lull in the diner, so Jess uses the break to chat with Oliver. That is, until he gets fed up from Kirk staring at him. 

 

“What is it this time, Kirk?” He sighs. “I already gave you your Tuesday usual, turkey and swiss in the shape of stars and apple juice. What else could you possibly want with me?”

 

“I don’t need anything. I’m just trying to figure out which one of you is the girl.”

 

Jess manages to keep a straight face, but not as much could be said for Oliver, who snorts at the question. “Neither of us, Kirk. That’s kinda the whole point of the word  _ boy _ in  _ boy _ friends.”

 

Kirk shakes his head. “I don’t get it.”

 

“There are no girls in the equation. I’m his boyfriend and he’s my boyfriend. Nowhere in that sentence is the word girl.” Jess tries again.

 

“I still don’t get it.”

 

Jess hangs his head with another sigh as Oliver keeps snickering. “Would you like to take a crack at this?”

 

He shakes his head. “No, you seem to be handling this fine on your own.”

 

“Traitor.”

 

“How about I make it up to you?”

 

Jess leans forward on the counter. “And how do you propose you do that?”

 

“Like this.” Jess closes his eyes as Oliver kisses him, disappointed when he pulls back all too soon. “Better?”

 

Jess smirks. “I’m not sure. Maybe you should try again, just to be safe.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

Jess nods in mock seriousness. “Of course. You wouldn’t want me secretly resenting you for this.”

 

Oliver pretends to think it over. “Well, we can’t have that.” They both lean across the counter, lips meeting in the middle.

 

“Is this gonna be a regular thing? Because this has to be the fifth time this week that I’ve walked into the diner to find you two joined at the face.” Lorelai bursts in with a sheepish Rory tailing her, taking a seat at the counter between Oliver and Kirk. Kirk seems to have lost interest, thank god, and is back to eating his lunch.

 

Jess pulls back reluctantly, sending Oliver a look of apology. “And how are you this fine day, Miss Gilmore?” He says in a sarcastic tone.

 

“I’d be doing better if I had my coffee.” He pours her a mug, then wordlessly gesturing with the pot to see if Rory wants some too.

 

“I’m good, thanks. I was just wondering if I left some notes upstairs last time I was here. I’ve already checked my place and Lane’s, so this is my last stop.”

 

Jess places the pot back in the holder, thinking about it. “I think I saw them on the coffee table. C’mon, I’ll show you.” 

 

He leads her upstairs, finding the notes right where he thought they would be. Snatching them up, he holds them back as he thinks back to what Rory said earlier. “So, I gotta ask, why did you leave off Dean’s place?”

 

“What?” She asks back a little too quickly, trying to grab her papers from him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Will you give me back my stuff?”

 

He just holds them higher above his head where she can’t reach. “Wow, you are a  _ really _ bad liar. And a really bad jumper.” He tacks on. “Seriously, I’m only a few inches taller than you, how are you having this hard a time?”

 

Rory gives up, choosing to glare at him and pout with her arms crossed. “You’re a jerk.”

 

“So I’ve been told. Now what’s going on between you two? Are you guys in a fight?”

 

“It’s not a fight, we just had a-”

 

“I swear, if you say disagreement, I am throwing these papers out the window.” He is so done with people and their ‘disagreements’.

 

“Fine, we’re fighting about where I’m going to college! Happy?”

 

Jess lowers his arm, not expecting that. “What do you mean? Everyone knows you’re going to Harvard.” All the fight leaves Rory as she collapses on the couch. Jess sits on the edge of the coffee table and tosses down the forgotten notes. “Hey, what happened?” He asks softly, trying to meet her gaze.

 

“Stupid Yale, that’s what.” She spits out.

 

Jess sighs. “Ah, jeez, that school is nothing but trouble.”

 

“You can say that again. A few weeks ago, I had told Dean what happened with Grandpa and when I asked him what he thought, he agreed with Grandpa that I should go to Yale instead.”

 

Jess shakes his head. She has to be mistaken. “Why would he say that? He’s seen all the Harvard crap in your room, you could practically open a store.”

 

“Because then I would be living nearby. We’ve talked about how hard it would be to stay together with me in Boston and him here in Stars Hollow, so when I mentioned Yale, he thought it was the perfect solution. ‘They’re both Ivy league schools, Rory. How different can they really be?’ he said! Can you believe it?!” 

 

He’s always thought Ivy league schools  _ were _ basically the same, but he’d never in a million years say that to Rory. Instead, he sends her a reassuring smile as he pats her on the knee. He freezes when she falls forward, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Not sure what to do, he rubs a hand up and down her back, hoping to calm her down. “There, there, I’m sure he didn’t really mean that. He knows Harvard is your dream, everyone does. And if he doesn’t get on board, then I’ll beat him up.” She snickers against his chest, her hair tickling under his chin as she shifts a little. “What’s so funny?”

 

She pulls back, wiping a few stray tears from her eyes. She has a smile on her face though, so he’s not too worried. “This. Us. A year ago, you probably would have been thrilled with me and Dean fighting. Now…”

 

“I’m defending him and have a boyfriend of my own?” He finishes her thought. “Yeah, life’s funny like that.”

 

“Thanks for letting me vent like that. God, I’m a mess, I’m sorry, I’ve just- I’ve had that weighing on my mind for a while, and normally I would’ve gone to my mom, but the whole topic about Yale has been a bit of a sore subject, so just… thanks.”

 

“It’s no problem, take all the time you need. I’ll always be here.” He stands and hesitates before dropping a quick kiss on the top of her head. “I’m gonna get you a glass of water.” 

 

“So,” She starts after a quick thanks for the water. “You’d really beat up Dean for me?”

 

“Like I said before, it’s all part of the big brother duties. Right there on the first page of the handbook, it says, ‘Any boys that hurt your feelings are to answer to my fist.’ Now personally, I think that’s a little extreme, but hey,” He shrugs. “Rules are rules.”

 

“Wow, too bad you weren’t around when I was ten. Jimmy Mores stole my pudding cup at lunch.”

 

“Now that’s just unforgivable. Next time you see him around town, you send him my way. He’ll think twice before stealing another pudding cup.”

 

She gives a more genuine laugh this time. “Seriously, thank you, Jess.”

 

“Pudding cup stealing is a serious offence. We can’t have people coming up and stealing your pudding cup whenever they feel like it.”

 

“Well, thank you. For defending my pudding cup.”

 

0000000000000000000

 

Lorelai watches as the two run upstairs, struck by how weird it is that she’s completely comfortable leaving Rory alone with Jess. He’s come a long way from, if she’s being completely honest, that angry, sarcastic, little shit that he was when he first arrived.

 

“So, Oliver, we haven’t had the chance to really talk, have we?” She turns to him, shrugging off her coat.

 

She holds back a laugh as he jumps in place, suddenly looking like a deer caught in the headlights as he chokes on his coke. “No, I, uh, I guess we haven’t. But if you’re worried about me hurting Jess, you don’t have to. I’d never do anything to hurt him, I swear-”

 

Feeling bad for the squirming kid in front of her, she decides to give him a break. “Whoa, slow down there, skippy. Relax, I’m not about to pull a  _ Godfather _ here. Although, now that you mention it, I’ve kinda taken a liking to him, so if you  _ do _ hurt him, you’ll be sleepin’ with da fishes.”

 

“Right, of course, ma’am. I totally understand.”

 

Lorelai cringes. “Little word of advise?  _ Never _ call me ma’am, got it?”

 

“Yes, ma- I mean Miss… Gilmore.”

 

She waves him off. “Lorelai’s fine, kid. And I just meant chat, get to know one another. The extent of my knowledge on you is that you go to Rory’s school, and I only know that from Rory herself.”

 

He chuckles, still on edge, but not to the extent he was a minute ago. “So Jess hasn’t ever been the chatty type, huh?”

 

“Most of the time you need a thought bubble for what’s going on in that kid’s head. But what about you? Like… what do you wanna do after high school?”

 

“My dad wants me to take over his business someday. He owns hotels all over the place, that’s why him and my mom travel so much.” He answers in a way that reminds Lorelai of how she used to answer that question at his age. Like reading from a script.

 

“That’s nice, but I asked what  _ you _ wanted to do.”

 

He shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. That’s been the plan since before I was born. First it was my grandfather’s business, who passed it on to my father, and now it’s expected that I take over someday.”

 

“Screw plans. You know I was born and bred in Hartford, right? To the great Emily and Richard Gilmore.” She asks.

 

“Yeah, Rory and Jess have both mentioned that.” He answers, not sure where she’s going with this.

 

“Well, when I was growing up, The Plan for me was that I would go to college where I would meet a nice young man who would later become my husband. A couple years down the road I’d pop out a kid or two, and then spend the rest of my life hosting events for whatever organization my mom would’ve made me join. Obviously, that plan didn’t happen do to me gaining a hundred pounds, some stretch marks, and fat ankles. So, the next Plan my parents made was that me and Christopher, Rory’s father, would get married as soon as we turned eighteen. Chris would go work for my dad’s firm, and I would stay at home raising Rory. I’m assuming you can see where I’m going with this?”

 

He nods slowly, Lorelai practically able to see the gears turning in his head. “I want to write for the New York Times. Maybe even be the editor some day, I don’t know. I just know I don’t want my life to be insignificant.”

 

She smiles. There’s that spark she was looking for. “I think that’s a great goal.”

 

“Really? When I brought it up once with my dad he said it was a frivolous waste of time.”

 

“Then prove him wrong. Be what  _ you _ want to be, not what he wants.” 

 

He gives her a hesitant smile. “Yeah?”

 

She nods reassuringly. “Oh, yeah.”

 

Jess and Rory appear from the behind the curtain, Rory with her notes in hand. Jess freezes at the sight of the two grinning at each other. “And what were you two chatting about?”

 

“Oh, you know,” Lorelai jumps in right away, winking at Oliver. “I was just telling him about how cute you were after you got your appendix out and you were super out of it from the morphine. I would brush your hair out of your face and you would do that cute little sigh-”

 

“Stop it!” He hisses, face beet red. “I can see Luke on his way back from the bank, let’s go.” He takes an amused Oliver’s hand, dragging him to the door.

 

“What? No kiss goodbye for Mommy?” Lorelai teases.

 

Jess is ignoring her now as he pushes past a confused Luke. “She’s your problem now.”

 

Rory gives her a disappointed look. “Was that really necessary?”

 

“I’m starved for entertainment. I’ve already told Dean all of the embarrassing stories about you, and I’ve got about seventeen years worth of embarrassment I have to make up for with Jess.”

 

Rory rolls her eyes. “Oh, boy.”

 

00000000000000000

 

Luke spends Thanksgiving split between cooking and serving. Caesar is out of town visiting his own family and Luke never wants to force any of his employees to be away from their families for the holidays. Besides, he  _ thought _ he was going to have the help of Jess, but that ended up falling through by the arrival of Oliver that morning with nowhere to go since his parents’ flight got delayed and they aren’t due to home until later tonight. He is a sweet kid though, he’ll give him that. Since he showed up unannounced, he offered to help out but Luke waved him off, telling him to relax. He doesn’t tell  _ Jess _ to relax, but he seems to have taken the offer to include him as well, only going as far as refilling coffees every once in a while.

 

Luke gets him back though, taking a page out of Lorelai’s book and embarrassing him to no end by hanging up a cork board next to his ‘No Cellphones’ sign full of photos, ranging from his parents’ wedding photo, him and Liz when they were kids, even a few of people from around town. And if a majority of the photos happen to be of Jess when he was a baby, then that’s purely by accident. Luke calmly explains to him that it was a compromise him and Taylor reached so he wouldn’t have to hang up a paper turkey or have stupid pilgrim salt and pepper shakers. Jess only glares, not believing him, but also not pushing the topic any further.

 

Jess really seems to have mellowed out lately, the past month or so especially, so after the traditional fight over flowers and vases with Lorelai, he tries to subtly gesture to her to come speak to him privately for a minute.

 

“Wh- what are you doing? Are you having a stroke?” She asks.

 

“Just- may I speak to you for a minute? In the back room?” He mutters, getting frustrated.

 

“O...Kay. But just to warn you, if you’re taking me to the back where there are no witnesses to you murdering me, I will be missed. There’ll be a huge manhunt and everything, and then you’ll be on dateline twenty years from now explaining how you almost got away with my murder if it weren’t for Rory, who never gives up on finding my killer, uncovers-”

 

“I wasn’t going to kill you, but now I’m on the fence about it.” He says, leading her to the back.

 

“Well, it would get me out of dinner with Stalin tonight.” She muses. “So, what’s up? What do you have to say that you couldn’t mention out there?”

 

Luke takes a deep breath, fiddling with his hands. “I’m gonna tell Jess tonight.”

 

“That you are taking creeper classes? Because let me tell you, they are really paying off, my friend.”

 

“Can you be serious? I’m talking about,” he makes sure they are alone one more time, then lowers his voice for good measure. “My adopting him.”

 

“Really?” She asks, not joking around anymore. “Luke, that’s great. You know I’ve been against you keeping this a secret from the beginning, so I’m glad you’re finally going to be honest with him.”

 

“You think so? Because I have a plan. I’m gonna wait until after we close and then sit him down upstairs,  _ calmly _ explain everything that went down, then get out all the papers so he can look through them himself. Did I mention staying calm? Because I’m definitely going to do that. I’ll let him react however he wants, within reason of course, and make sure that I treat him like an adult who can make his own decisions.” He’s getting nervous just thinking about it.

 

“That’s perfect.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

She nods. “Yeah.”

 

0000000000000000000

 

Jess shakes his head in amusement as Luke and Lorelai head to the back. “So, what stops have you made so far?” He asks Rory.

 

“We hit the Kims’ first, then Sookie and Jackson’s. After this we are off to my grandparents’ where we plan to spend exactly two hours, and then we’ll be done.” Jess doesn’t hide his displeasure of their last stop as well as he thought, because Rory slaps his arm. “Hey, he was only trying to do us a favor, in his own convoluted way, so be nice.”

 

Jess rolls his eyes, not wanting to rehash that whole debacle again. “Whatever. And what about you and Dean? Any progress there?”

 

“We talked. Well, about as well as one could over the phone, but we’re doing better. We’re gonna talk more when he gets back from Chicago.”

 

“When is that again?”

 

“Saturday. But, onto a more cheery subject, I see Oliver made it. I thought he was going to be in Hartford with his parents.”

 

Jess looks over where Oliver is talking with Kirk about the man’s new cat. “Their flight got delayed, so turns out they aren’t getting in until tonight. Hey, Ollie,” He gets his attention. “Where’d you say they’re coming from?”

 

“Um… Dubai. No, wait, I think it’s London. Or it could be Tokyo. Yeah, no, I’m pretty sure it’s Tokyo.” He finally decides on.

 

“How can you mix up those places?  _ None  _ of them are even on the same continent.” He points out with a laugh.

 

He only shrugs. “I stopped keeping track a  _ long _ time ago.”

 

Jess shakes his head, focusing back on Rory. “There you go. They are possibly in Dubai, London, or Tokyo.”

 

“Who’s possibly in Dubai, London, or Tokyo?” Lorelai asks as her and Luke come back out from the backroom.

 

“My parents.” Oliver answers as he joins the others at the counter.

 

“But all those cities are on different continents.” 

 

Oliver turns to Jess. “Okay, that is scary how the two of you always do that. Are you sure you’re not related?”

 

“I wonder that myself.” Luke mutters, delivering Kirk’s plate.

 

“No, we aren’t.” Jess stresses. 

 

“Huh, if that’s how you feel. Luke, I have another picture to add to your board here.” Lorelai smirks at Jess as she digs in her purse, pulling out a photo and handing it to Luke, who snorts.

 

“What? What is it?” Jess cranes his neck. Luke pins it up, blocking Jess’ view until he moves. “No. No way.”

 

“Ha!” Rory laughs. “See, Jess, I told you you were grinning! Now we have photographic proof!” The ‘proof’ as she said, is that someone had gotten a picture of Jess and Lorelai during the first song at the stupid dance marathon. And, unfortunately, he does look like he’s having fun. He’ll still deny it until he’s blue in the face though.

 

“You never did find that hat again, did you?” Oliver pouts. “I liked that hat. It made you look all ‘mysterious stranger’ in it.”

 

Jess pulls him close with a smirk. “Did I?”

 

“Oh, yeah.”

 

“Well, then, looks like I’m going shopping sometime soon. Know any places that sell hats?”

 

“I might know a few. I’ll get back to you on that.”

 

“Alright, give it a rest already.” Luke interrupts them. “Jess, help me bring the plates to the table.” Jess suppresses a sigh, resting his forehead on Oliver’s shoulder.

 

Oliver chuckles, pulling Jess’ hands off him. “C’mon, I know you’re starving. Luke hasn’t let us eat all day.”

 

“Fine, but only because the sooner we eat,” He whispers the next part. “the sooner we can head upstairs.”

 

Oliver elbows him, trying to stay serious, but failing miserably. “Go get our food.”

 

“As you wish.” He winks before turning around.

 

000000000000000000

 

Oliver stays a few hours after dinner, but unfortunately heads out all too soon so he can be home to greet his parents. Jess walks him out to his car hand in hand, trying to talk him into staying.

 

“It’s late, just crash here and drive home in the morning. Please?” He does his best puppy dog face he picked up from Rory.

 

“I would if I could, but I said I’d be home. I have to be there.” They stop at his car, Jess looping his arms around his neck in a last ditch effort to get him to stay. Oliver finds his hands around his waist instinctively.

 

“They’re probably so tired from traveling they won’t even notice you’re gone. C’mon, I’ll wake you up in the morning so you won’t be late.”

 

Oliver raises a brow. “So you want me to sneak in? What is this, every teen romcom ever?”

 

“Well, it is a cliche for a reason.” Jess smirks, going in to kiss his neck, earning him a moan.

 

“Jess… Jess, I really need to go.” Jess keeps going, gripping the small of his back. “Jess, stop.” He says more firmly, pushing Jess back by the shoulders. “I told you, you can’t leave a mark where they might see.”

 

“I thought your parents knew you were dating. What? They think you’re gonna be a nun the whole time?” Jess leans forward once more, only to get pushed back again.

 

“They know I’m dating.”

 

“Then what’s the big deal?”

 

Oliver shifts, eyes darting around before they settle on their linked hands. “They, um… just don’t know about us. That I have a boyfriend.”

 

“Wait. I thought you said you knew you were gay since you were, like, thirteen?”

 

“I have.” He answers right away. “I just,” He shrugs. “Never told anyone. When I mentioned I was dating someone, they assumed it was a girl, and I didn’t have the courage to correct them.” Jess stays silent as he processes everything, not wanting to say the wrong thing. “Are you mad? Please don’t say you’re mad.”

 

“What? No, of course not. Just curious I guess. I mean, why haven’t you told them?”

 

Oliver shrugs again. “Just nervous how they’d react I guess. The term ‘old money, old values’ comes to mind a lot.” He scoffs. “We can’t all have cool parents like Luke and Lorelai.”

 

Jess laughs out loud at that. “The only time the words ‘cool’ and ‘Luke’ are in the same sentence is if you’re talking about the movie starring Paul Newman.”

 

“You don’t give him enough credit. He’s been super supportive of you. Didn’t you catch him reading all those books from the library after we got together?” Jess nods, for once with no snappy comeback. “See, he hates reading and yet he did all that research on being bi for you so you can go to him. The only people I have are Rory and Paris.”

 

“Paris knows?” He cuts in.

 

“She figured it out. It works out because I know about Jamie so we have, and I quote, ‘Mutually assured destruction.’.”

 

Jess rolls his eyes. Good old Paris. “Okay.” He says softly, giving in. “Talk to you later?”

 

“Of course.” Jess closes his eyes as Oliver kisses him goodbye. He watches him leave, heading back to the diner after the car is out of sight.

 

Inside, there are only a few customers left sipping their coffee and finishing up their pie. Watching Luke go from the kitchen to the coffee pot, he thinks over what Oliver said. He really  _ is _ lucky having someone like Luke around to talk to. Had he still been living with Liz, he never would have told her about his first kiss with Oliver. Hell, he  _ still _ hasn’t told her he’s bi. Although, that’s more to do with the fact that he hasn’t even spoken to her since he was in the hospital, and even then they only talked for about a minute before Jess feigned sleep and handed the phone back to Luke.

 

With his mind made up, he meets Luke halfway and takes the coffee pot from him. “I got this.”

 

“Really?” He sounds pleasantly surprised.

 

“It’s just pouring coffee into a mug, there’s not much skill involved.” He deflects, going around topping everyone off. “Seriously, it’s literally the least I can do, now stop staring at me.”

 

Luke shakes his head. “Yeah, okay. I’m just gonna go up and change then.”

 

Jess replaces the pot, pulling a book out of his back pocket to read as he leans forward on the counter. “Whatever.” Luke stands there for another minute before scoffing and finally heading up.

 

The bell above the door rings, and Jess watches as a guy walks in slowly, looking around. “You lost?” He asks when the guy doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

 

He jumps, spinning around. “Uh, no. Just passing through. Mary Shelley?” He points at the book in Jess’ hand.

 

“Yeah, she was a badass.”

 

“No argument from me.” The guy sits at the counter on the edge of his seat. 

 

“Well, the kitchen’s closed, but we have coffee and some leftover peach pie. But between you and me, I’d just stick with the coffee. There’s a reason that’s the only one left.”

 

“I’ll just take the coffee then, thanks.”

 

“Good choice.” Putting his book down, he grabs a clean mug and pours him some. “Luke makes a lot of good things, but peach pie is not one of them.”

 

“He your dad?” The guy asks as he takes a sip.

 

“Luke? No, he’s my uncle.”

 

“Sorry, I just assumed from all the photos.” He nods to the board behind Jess. He glances back himself, noticing that more people from around town have added on to it. Great, that means Luke is probably going to keep it up for the foreseeable future.

 

Jess shakes his head. “Yeah, he’s pretty big into family.”

 

Jess watches as the guy studies the board, taking in every picture. “Boyfriend?” He asks, pointing to the one from the dance. Someone had taken a picture of him and Oliver together after Lorelai’s heel broke, with his eyes closed as he rests his head on Oliver’s shoulder and Oliver himself looking down at Jess with a smile. Huh, no wonder most of the town thought they were together way before they actually were. He should figure out how to get a copy of that without Luke finding out unless he wants to be teased endlessly about it.

 

“Yeah,” Jess glances at him, crossing his arms. “Problem?”

 

He holds his hands up. “None from me. I say live and let live. Plus, I’m from California so it might be a little hypocritical of me to say otherwise.” He chuckles awkwardly. “What’s his name?”

 

“Oliver.” The guy nods, but doesn’t say anything more. The last few customers come up to pay their bills, leaving only Kirk and the chatty guy left. “Long ways from home.” Jess says to keep the conversation from lagging. Luke is always getting on him about not conversing well with the customers.

 

“Visiting my son for Thanksgiving. He lives out here on the east coast.”

 

“Huh. How’d that go?”

 

“Not quite sure yet. I’ll have to get back to you on that.” He finishes off his coffee. “Thanks for the chat. Keep the change.” He pulls out his wallet, setting a twenty on the counter before taking off.

 

“Huh. That was weird.” Jess says to himself.

 

“What was weird?” Luke asks behind him, fiddling with the cuff on his shirt.

 

“The guy that was just in. He orders one coffee, asks me a bunch of questions about my life, then left a nineteen dollar tip.”

 

“Maybe you have a stalker.” Luke jokes.

 

“That’s not funny, dude was seriously cracked.”

 

Luke claps him on the back. “Well, it’s a holiday. The only people out are the crazy ones since all the sane people are home with their families. Speaking of, Kirk, time to go. We’re closing.”

 

Jess starts taking all the trash out back as Luke ushers Kirk out. “We’re outta space.” He says, coming back into the diner with the last bag.

 

“Find somewhere else to dump it then.” Luke says as he counts out the register.

 

“Where? The convenient landfill around the corner?”

 

Luke sighs. “Jess, just go put it in someone else’s can.” He leads the way, opening the door for his nephew.

 

“You should get more trash cans.” Jess complains as he follows him out.

 

“I don’t need more.” Luke starts looking around, probably trying to figure out who’s out of town and won’t notice the extra bag.

 

“Better than you making me run around town for a place to dump this.”

 

“Just dump it in one of Taylor’s bins. It gets it out of here, and it’ll drive Taylor crazy. It’s a win-win.”

 

“Hey, guys!” Lorelai breezes past. Great, at this rate they’re never gonna close.

 

“We’re out of food!” Luke calls out at her.

 

“Except for the peach pie. Still got plenty of that.” Jess adds, causing Luke to glare at him.

 

“Please, we’re not eating for a year.”

 

“Or at least ‘til tomorrow morning.” Rory jumps in.

 

“Whichever comes first.” Lorelai finishes. Jess finishes tying off the trash bag, hauling it over his shoulder so he can lug it to Taylor’s. “Hi, Saint Nick!”

 

“Tell him he needs to get more trash cans.” Jess pleads, hoping Lorelai can talk some sense into him.

 

“Just go!” Luke points towards Taylor’s.

 

“God, fine. But if I get caught illegally dumping this and get arrested, then you’re paying my bail.”

 

“I’ll be anxiously waiting by the phone for Coop’s call.” Luke fires back, closing the door after Lorelai and Rory.

 

He makes it to Doose’s without anyone around, hoping Taylor wasn’t paranoid enough to set up security by his trash cans. He dumps the bag with no hassle, brushing his hands off as he crosses the street. He runs into Lorelai and Rory going the other way, bag of rolls in hand. “I thought you two swore off food.” He yells back at them as he walks backwards.

 

“Please, have you met us?” Lorelai yells back, not turning around.

 

Shaking his head with a chuckle, sure he’ll get the full story from Rory later, he turns back around only to stop with a jump. “Jeez, man. Lurking much?”

 

“Sorry.”

 

The guy from the diner again? Jeez, maybe Luke wasn’t too far off with the whole stalker theory. “Yeah, well, live and let live right? I gotta get back now, so-” Jess tries to brush past him, but he blocks his path.

 

“Wait! Just- give me a sec here.”

 

“Dude, seriously, let me by.” Jess tries to get past again, but this time the guy actually grabs his arm to keep him from leaving, growing more frantic. Fight or flight kicking in, he yanks his arm back. “ _ Don’t _ touch me!”

 

The guy backs off right away, pulling his arms back. “Sorry, I didn’t mean- I just wanna talk.”

 

“Too bad I don’t wanna talk to you, now get los-”

 

“I’m your father.” The guy blurts out.

 

Mind racing a mile a minute, all Jess can manage is a quiet, “What?”

 

“I’m your father.” He repeats, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

 

“Yeah, I heard you the first time. Are you sure?”

 

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Jess didn’t know what to expect when it came to Jimmy Mariano, but the way Luke always talks about him, he always pictured more of a street bum with a needle sticking out of his arm, or drunk in a gutter at the very least. This Jimmy seems a lot more put together, less street bum and more your average Joe. He could have walked right past him and wouldn’t have suspected a thing. Hell, he  _ has _ done that nearly twice now. “Listen, Luke probably mentioned to you that I don’t have any rights to you anymore, hell he probably framed that document and hung it over his bed, but I just wanted to see you. I mean, you’re over eighteen now right? You’re not a minor so I can see you without breaking any rules or whatever.”

 

“Whoa, slow down, what document?” His head is swimming with so many discoveries, he feels like he should get out a pad and paper so he could jot them all down.

 

“The document. The abandonment form Liz sent at the beginning of summer for me to sign so Luke could adopt you.” Luke  _ and _ Liz knew about this? Liz he could understand not saying anything to him, she never cared to before, why start now? But  _ Luke. _ Why would Luke adopt him and not tell him? Luke always gets on him about talking things out and not keeping secrets, but then he goes and keeps something like  _ this _ from him? “...And I’m guessing by the staring and frowning thing you’re doing that you had no idea about any of this. God, this was a mistake, I’m sorry. Just… Sorry.” Before Jess can react, Jimmy turns and leaves, jumping into a car that was parked across the street and driving away.

 

Jess bites his lip as he tries to fight back the feeling of another panic attack. He needs to talk to Luke about this adoption rumor, because there’s just no way he would do something like that without clueing Jess in too. Maybe that guy was lying. That it was all just some sick joke at his expense. But there’s a little voice in the back of his head that keeps insisting the guy was legit. 

 

He knew his mom’s name.

 

Sure, Jess had mentioned Luke’s name in the diner, but he never told him his mother’s name is Liz. The only way he could have known that… 

 

He needs to talk to Luke. Get this whole mess straightened out once and for all.

 

00000000000000000000

 

After the horrendous dinner at her parents’ that was Thanksgiving, Lorelai just wants to erase the last two hours from her mind forever.

 

At least she got rolls from Luke. That makes up for some of the upset from earlier.

 

She also can’t help but wonder how Luke’s doing. He should have closed right after they left, meaning he’s probably coming clean to Jess at this very moment. Despite how confident she sounded to Luke, she has a really bad feeling about how this is going to turn out. She’s trying to stay optimistic though, Jess really has gotten better these past nine months, his temper much more manageable now. Although, she still can’t get that one moment out of her mind not that long ago, how mad he was after the ambush at Yale. She did talk him down, and Luke said later that he was easy to talk to afterwards, but for just a moment, she saw a flash of the old Jess, the one that was still new here and stealing beer out of her fridge.

 

Shaking her head to dispel that thought, she focuses on the clear night in front of her, probably one of the last mild ones for a while. Not wanting to miss it, her and Rory decided to enjoy the rolls on the porch steps. It also has the added benefit of being away from the phone inside, which has been ringing non-stop for the past two minutes.

 

“Are you sure we shouldn’t get that? It must be important since they aren’t giving up.” Rory pulls apart her roll, glancing back at the house.

 

“Nah, it’s most likely my mother, wanting to scold me more for how I left the table in the middle of dinner. ‘Honestly, Lorelai, we had guests. Leaving in the middle of the meal is terribly rude to the guests and embarrassing to your father and I.’” She mocks with her best Emily impression.

 

Rory giggles, nibbling on the roll, until she stops and squints at something. “Mom, is that Jess?” She whispers.

 

Lorelai’s heart drops, looks like her worst fear is coming true. 

 

Jess has his duffel bag with him.

 

As he gets closer, the worse he looks. He barely looks like he’s being held together with duct tape and paper clips. He stops a few feet away, scrubbing at his face. “Can I stay here? I don’t wanna go home now.” His voice is hoarse, like he’s been yelling. Luke’s is probably just as bad.

 

“Yeah, of course, sweetie. Come here.” She holds an arm out, inviting him to come sit.

 

He lets his bag slide off his shoulder, landing on the grass with a muted thump. His face scrunches up as he all but collapses into her, burying his face into her shoulder like he had in the hospital waiting room back in September. She sighs, wrapping her arm around him. Glancing at Rory, her daughter looks distraught and confused. ‘Later.’ She mouths to Rory before turning her attention back to Jess, rocking him gently when she feels his breathing becomes labored and he starts clawing at her coat sleeve. He must be having one of his panic attacks Luke had told her about. Remembering what he told her to do, she slows down her own breathing while whispering for him to do the same.

 

“Everything’s gonna be okay, kid. I promise.”


	2. I'm not Passive but Agressive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from the song The Kids Aren't Alright by Fall Out Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the slight delay, I'm taking a few classes this quarter and after spending three hours writing a paper, I'm really don't want to write anymore sometimes and just want to zone out. I'll still work on this, so don't worry it's not going on hiatus, just times between updates will be a little longer.
> 
> This chapter is a little longer so I hope that makes up for it.
> 
> That all said, I hope you all enjoy! :)

Luke sits alone in a silent apartment. He used to love his quiet mornings, the ones where he would have Caesar open so he can read the paper in peace as he enjoyed his breakfast. He hasn’t had a quiet morning to himself since Jess moved in. The kid is a walking natural disaster. He thumps around like an elephant wearing lead boots, turns the tv up to the highest volume then walks away, and worst of all, has his obnoxious music blasting  _ all  _ the time. He takes a shower, he takes his boombox in and blasts his music. He’s reading, he has his music blasting. He’s going to  _ sleep, _ he has his music blasting! Luke got so sick of it, he went out and got him headphones so no one else has to listen to the crap, but even that backfired when Jess would have it so loud over the headphones that Luke could  _ still _ hear the thumping of the bass across the room.

 

He’d do anything to hear his damn music again.

 

It’s been a week since Jess packed his bag and left. A week of deafening silence since the worst fight the two have ever had. A week of waiting, Lorelai just about ordering him to stay away and let Jess come to him. 

 

So that’s what he’s done. He’s gone on with his routine, minus all the noise Jess usually leaves in his wake. Every morning, he eats breakfast by himself at the table, staring at the bed that’s been empty for a week except for the one lone leather jacket Jess had left folded at the foot of the bed. The jacket Jess had been drooling over for months leading up to his birthday and then became a second skin after Luke gave it to him. Even as the days grew colder, Jess still wore it with some grey hoodie layered underneath to stay warm. Now it just sits there, mocking him. Reminding him of that horrible night and making him wish he could go back and undo everything, starting with keeping the adoption a secret from Jess to begin with. 

 

00000000000000000

 

_ Luke sends the Gilmores off with the leftover rolls, not sure why he’s surprised anymore with anything concerning them and food. He quickly finishes cleaning up downstairs, wondering where Jess got off to as he flips the last chair up onto the table. He should have been back ten minutes ago after dumping that last trash bag in Taylor’s bin. He probably snuck in the back way to get out of closing again. After one last double check that everything’s off in the kitchen, Luke flicks the lights off and heads upstairs, nerves setting in as he climbs the stairs. A little part of him is hoping he’ll find Jess asleep just so he has an excuse to put this off one more night. But a bigger part of him knows he can’t keep Jess’ adoption a secret any longer. Time to face the music. _

 

_ Jess is at the table huddled over some papers when he walks in, something not too uncommon now that he actually does his homework. It is a little strange that he’s doing it now, the first night of a four day weekend, but maybe since Oliver’s gone with his parents, Dean’s in Chicago, and Lane and Rory are both with their moms, he’s using the downtime to finish up. _

 

_ “Hey, whatcha workin’ on?” Luke stuffs his hands in his pockets, rocking on the balls of his feet a few paces away. _

 

_ Jess leans back in his chair, angling his body towards Luke. “So, were you ever gonna tell me?” _

 

_ Luke schools his face to a neutral expression. Jess could mean a lot of things, no point in giving away anything. “Tell you what?” _

 

_ Jess rolls his eyes. “Don’t play stupid. Jimmy told me about how you and Liz are scheming behind my back, Luke. Or should I call you Dad now? Or maybe you would prefer Papa or Father?” _

 

_ Damn it, he was going to easy into it, not go straight into it! Way to go Jimmy, once again screwing everything up! “Jess…” _

 

_ “You’re such a goddamn hypocrite!” Jess jumps out of his seat. “You’re always preaching about talking things out and telling the truth, and then you go and hide something like  _ this _ from me?!” _

 

_ “Listen, I know you’re upset, you have every right to be, but if I can just explain-” Luke makes sure to keep his temper in check, expecting there to be yelling from Jess’ end. _

 

_ “Explain what?! How you broke the law and got my signature under false pretences?!” _

 

_ “How I went about this was all wrong, I made a mistake,” Luke admits. _

 

_ “Hell yeah, you did!” Jess interrupts. _

 

_ “ _ But _ I did it for you.” _

 

_ Jess is speechless for a second. “For- How in  _ the _ hell did you come to  _ that _ conclusion?!” _

 

_ “Your mom-” _

 

_ Jess gives a wry chuckle. “Oh yes, do tell me how that wack job fits into all this.” _

 

_ “Hey!” Luke raises his voice for the first time. “Watch it.” Jess glares, waiting for Luke to finish. With a sigh, Luke looks down at the table and notices the papers are all the ones on Jess that he had been keeping in his safe. His locked safe. “How did you get these?” He holds up one of the papers. _

 

_ “You musta left them out.” _

 

_ “No, I know for a fact I had all these in my safe.” _

 

_ “Then they musta fell out! Who cares, they’re about me anyway, I have a right to see them!” _

 

_ “Which is why I was going to show them to you tonight!” Luke finally loses his patience, tossing the paper back on the table. _

 

_ “Why should I believe a word you’re saying?! Huh?! You’ve been lying to me for the past six months, you don’t exactly scream trustworthy right now!” _

 

_ “Because you’re the one doing all the screaming!” _

 

_ “Well, so are you!” Jess fires back. _

 

_ Taking a deep breath, because this argument is quickly spirling nowhere fast, Luke starts again. “I didn’t want to see you hurt by your mom again. I was scared if you knew she had given up on you-” _

 

_ “ _ That’s _ what you’re worried about?!” Jess cuts him off again. “Luke, I gave up caring about Liz back when I was seven and she left me alone in a shitty motel for two days while she was off on a bender with the boyfriend of the week! You  _ lied _ to me! I thought I could trust you!” _

 

_ “And you can! I know I screwed up, but you can trust me now, kid!” _

 

_ “No! Stop it!” Jess grips his hair, squeezing his eyes shut. “Don’t call me that! I’m  _ not _ your kid! And you know what?! You’re not my father!” _

 

_ “Jess…” Luke feels like he just got sucker punched in the gut. _

 

_ “Enough! I can’t- I can’t do this anymore!” Jess darts to his side of the room, pulling his old duffel bag out of the closet. He starts digging through his dresser, balling up clothes and tossing them in his bag. _

 

_ “Hey, hey, what are you doing?” Luke stops staring and jumps into action, trying to stop him. _

 

_ “Don’t touch my stuff!” Jess snaps, snatching his bag back. Luke gives it up without a fight, taking a few steps back for good measure. Jess zips it shut and slings it over his shoulder, ready to go, but Luke steps in front of him and blocks his path. _

 

_ “Don’t leave, Jess. We’re both tired. Let’s get some sleep and pick this up again tomorrow after we’ve calmed down.” _

 

_ “Get outta my way.” He growls, staring at the floor. _

 

_ “Jess-” _

 

_ “I said get the fuck outta my way!” _

 

_ In a stunned silence, Luke steps to the side to let him pass. “Where are you gonna go?” Luke asks when Jess gets to the door. _

 

_ He freezes, hand on the nob. “I’ll figure it out.” _

 

_ “That’s not good enough. I need to know you’re somewhere safe.” _

 

_ “Any place that’s not here! Dean’s, Oliver’s, Rory’s… Hell, the back seat of my car are all looking like better options at the moment!” He snaps. _

 

_ “Jess, it’s thirty degrees out! You can’t sleep in your car, you’ll freeze to death!” _

 

_ Jess smirks. “Well, that would just be a bonus then.” _

 

_ Luke flinches as Jess slams the door shut. That was not how Luke planned for this to go. He knew Jess would be upset, but he thought if he could sit him down and calmly talk through the situation with him like an adult, then everything would be okay. Having Jimmy show up out of the blue like that definitely threw him for a loop. That guy really does have a knack for doing the opposite of what’s expected of him. He shows up dating Liz, Luke wants him gone, so he sticks around. He gets Liz pregnant, Luke want him to stick around for the baby’s sake, he gets his ass out of dodge. Now Luke was finally making some progress with Jess, and it all goes out the window with the appearance of the great Jimmy Mariano. _

 

_ “Shit!” Luke yells, letting all his frustrations out on the papers left on the table, watching them float to the ground. Instantly regretting it, he sighs as he bends down and gathers them all up in a neat pile, setting them back on the table to organize later. Worried about where Jess could be off to, he peeks out the window just in time to see Jess walk past his car. At least he wasn’t serious about sleeping in the back seat.  _

 

_ Trying to think about where he could be heading to, he mentally crosses Dean and Oliver off the list. Dean’s still in Chicago, and Jess would have gotten in his car to go to Oliver’s, busses to Hartford not running this late. Lane’s is a no-go, Mrs. Kim wouldn’t even let Jess through the front door, much less let him stay the night. That only leaves Lorelai and Rory’s as the only viable option. His suspicions are practically confirmed as Jess starts walking in that direction. _

 

_ Wanting to give Lorelai a heads up, he dashes for his phone and dials the number by memory. He taps his fingers on the desk as the phone rings out. _

 

_ “Hi, we’re not home right now because we have a life, but my answering machine is, so you can talk to it instead! Wait for the beep!” Lorelai’s cheerful message is all he gets. Not wanting to leave this as a message that Rory could over hear and wanting to talk to Lorelai in person, he hangs up and dials again only to once again get the answering machine. _

 

_ “Come on, woman, I know you’re home. Answer your damn phone.” He mutters as he punches in her number again. This goes on for ten minutes straight before someone finally answers. “Lorelai-!” _

 

_ “Luke, you have  _ so _ much explaining to do, but not right now. I’ll call you back when I get the chance, but for now you need to stop calling.” _

 

_ “But-” _

 

_ “I’m serious. Jess is on the porch with Rory now and I only got away by lying and saying it was my mom calling. If I talk to you any longer he’ll get suspicious.” _

 

_ “He’s okay though? Jess is okay?” He gets in before she can hang up. _

 

_ He hears a sigh on the other end and then a pause before, “He will be. For now just hang tight, I’ll call you as soon as I can.” She hangs up after that, leaving him with the dial tone. _

 

_ The next hour is torture as he waits for Lorelai to call back. It’s taking all he has to stay put and not march straight to her house to check on Jess himself.  _

 

_ The phone only gets through half a ring before he snatches it up. “Is he okay?”  _

 

_ “Yeah, he finally fell asleep on the couch downstairs.” Lorelai whispers, the creaking of a door in the background. She must have taken her cordless phone upstairs to her bedroom. “Now, ready to explain what the hell happened? I thought you said you had a plan.” She asks at a more normal level. _

 

_ Luke untangles himself from the cord from all his pacing and collapses on the couch with a groan. “I did. Until freakin’ Jimmy Mariano decided to make a guest appearance.” _

 

_ “Jess’ dad showed up? I thought you said he hasn’t ever reached out. That’s how you were able to get him to sign that abandonment form.” _

 

_ “Well, I guess he had a change of heart, because he spilled the beans to Jess when he went to take the garbage out. God, he was probably the same guy that came in the diner and asked Jess all those questions while I was upstairs changing.” Luke rubs his forehead, trying to massage away the headache that formed between his eyes over an hour ago. _

 

_ “I’m sorry.” Lorelai says. _

 

_ “No, as much as I’d like to blame Jimmy for all this, he’s not the one that was lying to Jess for all these months. You tried to warn me, but I was too stubborn to listen. None of this would have happened if I had just been honest from the start.” _

 

_ “Hey, you think you’re the first parent to make a mistake? You were just doing what you thought was right for your kid. Sure, you made a bad call, but there’s nothing you can do to change that. All you can do now is move forward and hope on the next crisis you’ll make a better call.” _

 

_ “How do I fix this? You should have seen him, he was so mad and upset… I caused that. What if… what if he never wants anything to do with me again?” Luke’s stomach does flips at just the thought of it. _

 

_ “Oh, Luke, he’ll come around, I’m sure of it. But I think it’s best if you don’t seek him out, let him come to you. I’m sure he has so much going on in his head, he just needs some time to process it.” _

 

_ “How long will that take though? When you ran away and went to Mia, you didn’t start having a relationship again with your parents until fifteen years later. I don’t want to wait fifteen years to see my kid again.” _

 

_ “I promise I won’t let it come to that.” Lorelai says without hesitation. “The situation with my parents is completely different from that of you and Jess. For one, you are not Hitler himself back from the grave.” _

 

_ “I think Jess would argue differently.” Luke mutters. _

 

_ “ _ And _ ,” She presses on. “I will talk to him some more, try and urge him to see you.” _

 

_ Luke sighs. That’s all he seems to be doing tonight. “Thanks. For everything. Taking Jess in like this, helping me… I know I say it a lot, but I really do appreciate everything you’re doing for me and Jess.” _

 

_ “Oh, Luke, you big softie, you’d do the same for me if the situation were reversed.” _

 

_ “If only so Rory wouldn’t die of scurvy.” He tries to joke. _

 

_ Lorelai chuckles. “You jest. Get some sleep now, okay? I’ll come see you tomorrow.” _

 

_ “Okay, goodnight, Lorelai.” _

 

_ “Night, Luke.” _

 

0000000000000000000000000000000000

 

“Alright, chickadees! Come get it while it’s still hot from the toaster!” Lorelai yells from the kitchen. Jess comes in at the same time as Rory leaves her room.

 

“Chilton instituting casual Fridays now?” He asks, glancing at her regular clothes and not her usual pristine uniform. He wraps one of the poptarts in a napkin and passes it to her, keeping one for himself.

 

She pushes past him to get to the coffee machine. “No, teacher workshop day. Which means no school for me.” Now that she has her coffee and poptart, Rory disappears back into her room.

 

Jess sits at the table, snapping his fingers. “That reminds me, I have-”

 

“Nice try, Ferris Bueller. I know you have school today.” Lorelai finishes tying her hair up. “Although, you could probably have the whole day off if you went over and talked to Luke.” She doesn’t look at him as she suggests it, more focused on pouring her coffee.

 

Mood instantly soured, Jess stands up uruptly. “I’m gonna be late.”

 

“No, you aren’t.” She sits across from where he’s standing. “Sit down for a sec, please.” He stays where he is. “Okay, how about this. I haven’t made you talk for the past week you’ve been here, so at the very least sit down and listen to what I have to say.” Lorelai says more firmly. 

 

Biting his lip, he sits back down, eyes focused on the poptart he left on the table. 

 

Lorelai cups her hands around her mug, taking a sip of coffee. “I know you’re probably feeling betrayed and lied to right now, and you have every right to be, but Luke didn’t mean to hurt you. In fact, the whole reason he lied to you to begin with was to try and spare your feelings.” She pauses, probably waiting to see if he says anything. When it’s clear he’s going to stay silent, she continues. “He loves you, he calls me every night asking about you. I just think you should meet him halfway on this, let him explain his side of it.”

 

He keeps his eyes fixed down. “Are you done?”

 

Lorelai sighs, before shaking her head. “Yeah, I need to get to work. Michel is probably breathing into a paper bag as we speak.” 

 

“Well, you wouldn’t want that.” He tries to hide his discomfort behind sarcasm, his usual go-to.

 

She gets up, rinsing her mug out in the sink. “You wanna ride to school?”

 

“Nah, I’ll walk.” He’d much rather fight the cold than be trapped in a car where she might try and ‘talk’ to him again.

 

“Too cool to be seen being dropped off by Mommy? What next, you and Rory just planning on throwing me into a nursing home when I get old and frail?”

 

“Rory’s scouting out places as we speak.”

 

“Brats.” She says jokingly as she plants a kiss on his head, dodging him as he swats her away. “Have a good day, sweetie.”

 

“I’ll be  _ all _ smiles.” He gives her a forced grin.

 

Lorelai rolls her eyes. “Babe, I’m heading out!” She knocks on Rory’s door.

 

“‘Kay, bye!” She yells through the door, not bothering to come back out.

 

“Wow, I feed them, clothe them, give them a warm bed to sleep in… and what do they do? Treat me like chopped liver!” Her complaints get cut off by the shutting of the front door. 

 

Jess buries his face in his hands, taking the moment alone to gather his thoughts. All too soon he gets interrupted by Rory barging back out from her room. She freezes, nearly dropping her mug. “Oh! You scared me. I thought you’d left already.”

 

She heads over to the coffee machine, pouring another mug. “Sorry to disappoint.”

 

“No, not disappointed. Just shocked. Not  _ shocked _ shocked, like I expect you to be skipping school, just the normal amount of shocked. I’m gonna stop talking now.” Rory takes a gulp of her coffee. Things have been weird between the two ever since she witnessed his panic attack. She keeps dancing around him like he could break at a moments notice, keeping all their interactions light. “So, are you planning to? Skip that is.”

 

Jess shrugs. “Haven’t decided yet.”

 

“Oh. Okay. If it’s any constellation, I vote no on the skipping.”

 

He nods. “I’ll take your opinion under advisement.” Rory forces a smile, obvious that isn’t what she wanted to hear, and starts to head back to her room. He calls back for her at the last second. “Hey, you never told me how the extended talk with Dean went when he got back from Chicago.”

 

She waves him off. “Fine. We’re fine.”

 

“Huh. Then why aren’t you wearing that bracelet he made you? Just asking so Lorelai doesn’t accuse me of theft again.”

 

“What? Oh! It broke in the shower this morning. The leather had been fraying for a while, and I guess today was finally it. I’ll just ask him to fix it when I see him.”

 

“But things are good?” He checks again.

 

“I told you, we’re fine. If we weren’t then would we be going on a date tonight to La Vista in Hartford?”

 

Jess whistles. “Swanky.”

 

“Yes, and I have a lot of work to get done, so are we done with this or do you want a breakdown of what we’ll be wearing too?” She snaps. Good, he was getting frustrated with all the baby gloves.

 

“Think you can get a full transcript of the evening?”

 

Rory rolls her eyes. “Go to school, Jess.”

 

“Whatever, bossy lady.”

 

Jess swings his backpack over one shoulder, taking his time walking to school. After all the excitement of this morning, he’s really not in the mood to go and be forced to be social for the next six hours. He’s tempted to just get in his car and drive around, but it’s still parked right in front of Luke’s and the man is bound to notice it missing in the middle of the school day.

 

Almost like fate, the bus Rory normally takes for Hartford pulls up as he passes the bus stop. Watching a few people pack on, Jess makes a split second decision to jump on too.

 

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Oliver’s taking the rare day off to finally catch up on some reading, when he gets interrupted by a tapping sound outside his window. His second story window. Curiosity getting the better of him, he marks his place and goes to peek out the window. He’s not sure why he’s surprised to find Jess throwing pebbles at the window. Very badly he might add.

 

He opens his window and leans out. “Good thing you didn’t try out for baseball, your aim still stinks.”

 

Jess tosses down the rest of the pebbles in his hand. “Yeah, I was a lot cooler in my head. My first choice was to hold a boombox over my head, but that would’ve been too awkward to carry on the bus.”

 

“Shame. So, don’t take this the wrong way, but why are you here? Shouldn’t you be in school? Is everything okay?” Rory had told him about Jess and Luke getting in some huge fight the night of Thanksgiving and has been staying on her couch since then. He only found out through Rory because Jess hadn’t been answering any of his calls all week. 

 

“Everything’s hunky-dory. Now can you come down here so I don’t have to keep yelling up to you?” With a nod, Oliver shuts his window and quickly gathers his phone, wallet, keys, and jacket. Making it downstairs in record time, he slips on his shoes before heading outside, pulling his jacket closer to fight the cold. “I still don’t get how you get cold so often. You’ve lived in Connecticut your whole life, you should be used to it.” Jess comments from his perch against his car.

 

“Is that why you skipped to come see me? To make fun of me?”

 

“No, I came here to do this.” Oliver lets himself be pulled into a kiss. “And,” Jess adds. “To offer you a chance to see New York.”

 

“Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’ve already been to New York. A lot actually.”

 

Jess smirks. “Ah, but you’ve only seen the  _ fake _ New York.”

 

Oliver chuckles. “The ‘fake’ New York? And what, pray tell, does that mean?”

 

“It  _ means, _ you’ve only seen the touristy parts of the city. The parts they  _ want _ you to see, like your fancy uptown Fifth Ave and Central Park. I bet you haven’t even been below 14th street.”

 

Oliver doesn’t dignify that with a response. “And what brought on this sudden need to show me the ‘real’ New York after a week of radio silence?” Jess winces at that, shuffling in place. “I don’t mean that in a mean way!” Oliver corrects right away. “You don’t need to answer that. Rory only mentioned that you and Luke had a huge fight last week, and I’m just curious why you went from shutting everyone out to wanting to take an impromptu day trip to New York.”

 

“Rory told you about our fight? Did she say anything else?”

 

“Please don’t be mad at her. She didn’t want to tell me anything, but you weren’t answering any of my calls and I was getting worried. I pushed her to tell me and even then she didn’t go into any more detail than that.”

 

Jess lets out a long sigh, making Oliver even more worried if that’s possible. “I needed to get out of Stars Hollow for a day. It’s like living in a glass house what with everyone knowing everyone else’s business. Word of me staying at Rory’s spread like wildfire and I’m sick of the whole town staring at me with all this concern. Even  _ Taylor. _ I threw a gum wrapper on the ground in front of him and all he did was nod and wish me a good day! He’s  _ never _ that nice to me! And then there’s Lorelai, who keeps babying me every two seconds. I just wanna be away from it all.”

 

“Okay. Let’s go.”

 

Jess pushes off the car. “Really?” 

 

“Yup.” Oliver pulls out his keys, unlocking his car. “One condition though.” He says before getting in.

 

Jess folds his hands on the roof of the car. “Shoot.”

 

“If you’re such an expert on New York, you better take me to the best damn pizza place in the city.”

 

“Deal.”

 

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The two and a half hour trip to New York ends up being a new experience for Oliver since Jess insists they take the bus, citing that otherwise he would have his New Yorker card stripped of him on the spot. Even once they got into the city the yellow cabs are a no-no, Jess telling him that they’re extremely overpriced to scam money out of tourists.

 

(“No New Yorker  _ ever _ travels by car. Only the super rich or tourists do. I promised you an authentic trip and I intend on delivering.”

 

“But a car is just going to sit in the same traffic as a bus, and at least my car smells better and doesn’t have questionable stains.”

 

“You’re forgetting the most tried and true way of transport. The subway.”)

 

And if he thought the bus was a culture shock, the subway was a different  _ planet. _ All the different metrocard bundles might as well have been in greek for all the sense they made. After five minutes of staring at the sign, Jess grew tired of waiting and just picked one for him. Then once they got to the platform, which Oliver is still shocked at how swiftly Jess knew which train to take without looking at a map, Jess and all the other people waiting seemed to know the train was coming minutes before there was even a rumble.

 

“What's going on?” He whispers to Jess, not wanting anyone to overhear him.

 

“Did you feel that breeze a second ago?” Oliver nods. He was wondering about that since they were underground. “It's from the air pressure shifting from the oncoming train. Best alert system.”

 

Seeing all the other cars full, he starts to head for the empty one before Jess takes his hand and pulls him toward one of the packed ones. 

 

“Trust me. There's a reason everyone is avoiding that car, and you seriously don't wanna know why.”

 

They squeeze on along with everyone else, Jess keeping a hold of him so they don’t get separated. Oliver watches out the dirty window, and sure enough, no one goes in the empty car. He glances around the car as the doors close and notices no one, including Jess, is using the hand rails. Figuring that’s another unspoken rule, he doesn’t either and copies Jess, whose leaning against the glass divider between the door and seats. The train slowly starts to move, so he figures he’ll be fine, until there’s a jerk and they pick up speed. The sudden speed change throws him off balance and he nearly falls into the group of people in front of him if it weren’t for Jess wrapping an arm around his waist, pulling him close.

 

“Jeez, the handrails aren’t just for decoration, they serve a functional purpose too.” He tells him with a laugh.

 

“You weren't using it.” Oliver mutters, face heating up.

 

“Because I've been riding these all my life. I know how to keep my balance.”

 

Oliver sticks close to him as they make a connection, partly out of necessity from losing each other in the crowd and also so he doesn’t fall again on the next subway. Once they reach their stop and finally surface, he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. While Jess is busy looking for the pizza place, Oliver pulls out his phone to find a few missed calls. One is from an unknown number, but the others are from Rory’s phone and the diner.

 

“Alright, so we go a few blocks down this way, then- What’s wrong?” Jess asks, cutting himself off.

 

“Did you tell anyone we were coming here?”

 

Jess’ face goes blank. “Why?”

 

“Because Luke and Rory have both tried to get a hold of me in the last hour, and I’m assuming the other number is Lorelai’s.”

 

“So what? We’re not minors, they have no control over where I go. If I wanna spend the day away from them, then they just have to deal. Let ‘em stew, they deserve it.” That said, Jess turns and starts heading down the street. “You comin’? You said you wanna try the best damn pizza place in the city.” He calls out over his shoulder, not waiting to see if Oliver follows or not.

 

Oliver hesitates before running after him. It’s not like he has much choice, every street and subway tunnel they’ve been through today have all looked the same, there’s no way he could ever find his way back without Jess. This whole thing feels wrong now though. At first he was excited to spend the day hanging out with Jess in the city. Now he just feels guilty as he ignores his phone vibrating in his pocket for the fourth time. 

 

They walk in an uncomfortable silence until they reach the small pizza place. Even then, they only speak to order their food. Oliver knows something is wrong when Jess doesn’t tease him for his choice of toppings, not even a wrinkle of a nose when they sit down at one of the three tables in the place by the window. He nibbles at his slice, thinking about how Jess was talking about Luke and Lorelai. Knowing them, they’re probably worried sick about a missing Jess, and yet Jess doesn’t seem to care in the least. It’s almost like he’s enjoying their misery. Jess warned him at the beginning that he used to be a complete asshole, and could still ‘have his moments’ as he worded it. He didn’t believe it, having never witnessed it himself, but now he’s starting to see what he meant.

 

Jess sighs across from him. “Is this gonna be a whole thing now?”

 

Oliver jumps. “What?”

 

“If something’s bothering you, just come out and say it.”

 

Thinking it over, Oliver decides honesty is the best route here. “I’ve never heard you talk like that, especially about Luke. You guys are so close, what happened to make you guys have such a big blow up?”

 

Jess bites his lip, looking out the window for a minute. “Luke was keeping something from me. Something big.”

 

“What?”

 

Jess clams up. “It doesn’t matter.”

 

Oliver tries to meet his gaze. “Hey, it obviously does if it’s affecting you this much. You can talk to me.”

 

He waits with bated breath while Jess thinks about it. “Last summer,” He says softly. “Liz and my father gave up their rights to me, handing them all over to Luke so he could adopt me.”

 

“I didn’t know Luke adopted you. That’s really cool!” Jess doesn’t smile. “...Or not? Did you not want Luke to adopt you?”

 

Jess scoffs. “I don’t know. It would’ve been nice to at least be consulted about it. Hell, it’s  _ my _ life, I deserve to be able to weigh in on the decision process.”

 

“Nobody told you?” Jess shakes his head. “What about Lorelai and Rory? Did they know?”

 

“Not Rory, but Lorelai did. I don’t blame her though, she said she only learned about it way after the fact and even tried to talk Luke into telling me about it.”

 

“Wow, that’s screwed up.” Oliver comments on the situation as a whole.

 

“You can say that again.” Jess mutters as he takes another bite of his pizza.

 

No wonder Jess wants to block everyone out, he’d be pissed too if he were in the same position. Feeling his phone vibrate again, he feels a spike of anger on behalf of Jess and takes it out to turn it off completely.

 

“Where are we going next?” Oliver asks after stuffing his phone back in his pocket, changing the subject.

 

“You wanna stay?”

 

“You promised me an authentic trip. Don’t tell me you’re bowing out on me, Mariano.”

 

A grin grows on his face. “Never. And speaking of authenticity, who the hell gets a veggie pizza? Vegetables don’t belong anywhere near a pizza.” Glad to be able to get through Jess’ funk, he lets him dump the last of his pizza and order him a new one, this one a plain cheese one. “Here, you heathen. You can eat it on the way.” He gathers up his own slice and heads for the door, Oliver scrambling to follow after him.

 

00000000000000000000000000

 

The rest of the day is spent by Jess showing him all his old haunts. Like promised, they stay below 14th street the whole time, and Oliver has to admit, he’s liking it a lot better than all the stuffy uptown places his parents always drag him to. 

 

The sun’s setting as they head into a music store, Jess making a sharp left as they enter to a set of stairs that go down to a basement level.

 

“This place is the best to find live recordings of shows. The two guys that run it are geniuses, they put Dave’s knowledge of sound equipment to shame.” Jess tells him.

 

The downstairs is only lit by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling so it takes a second for Oliver’s eyes to adjust, but once they do he looks around in amazement. All the walls are filled with floor to ceiling shelves of vinyl records. There’s also an open doorway in the back that leads to another room like the one they’re in. In the middle of the room is a desk where two middle aged guys are huddled over a record player with headphones on, different sound equipment surrounding them. Oliver hangs back, not wanting to disrupt them, while Jess walks right up behind one with blonde hair and pulls his headphones off. 

 

“Boo!”

 

The guy jumps and spins around. “Shit! What the f-”

 

Jess sticks his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels. “Wow, it’s been over a year and that’s how you greet me? I see how it is.” 

 

The guy grins, slapping the brown haired guy’s arm to get his attention. “Check it out, man, Lil’ Jessie’s back in the flesh.”

 

Jess rolls his eyes good naturedly. “I told you to stop calling me that, old man.”

 

“We told you we will once you’re able to reach the top shelf. Now, word was you got shipped off to the sticks. You back for good?”

 

“Nah, just visiting. Showing my boyfriend the better parts of the city.” Jess gestures for him to come over. “Oliver, these two knuckleheads are Bill and Mark.” He nods at the blonde first, then the other one. 

 

Mark holds out his hand. “Ha! Pay up!”

 

“Damn, I really thought I’d be right on this.” Bill grumbles as he pulls out his wallet and slaps a few notes in his outstretched hand.

 

Oliver glances at Jess, but he just looks embarrassed. “And when did this little wager start?” Jess asks challengingly.

 

“About… a month after you started coming here?” Mark looks up from counting his money to Bill for confirmation.

 

He nods. “About that, yeah.”

 

“A  _ month- _ I was ten, you assholes!” Jess stutters, ears burning red.

 

“A ten year old who was  _ way _ too into Bowie and Queen.” They tease. Even Oliver snickers a little, which earns him a glare from Jess.

 

“Changing the subject,” Jess shifts. “What do you guys have there? Any good?” He gestures to the record on the desk.

 

Letting Jess have his way, they turn their attention to it as well, Bill taking the needle off and unplugging the headphones. “We just got this a couple days ago. New, local, band’s all kids about your age. They aren’t bad, lots of potential.” Setting the needle back at the beginning, he lets the music play out loud. They sound great, but Oliver doesn’t really have an ear for it like Jess or Lane do. Jess is nodding along so they must not stink.

 

“The bass is a little weak, but that singer more than makes up for it.” Jess comments when the song ends.

 

“Yeah, she definitely has a future ahead of her.” Mark says. He starts digging through the mess on the desk, pulling out a flier. “They’re playing tonight if you have the time.  _ But,” _ He holds the flier out of reach. “I have to warn you, it’s a pharm party.”

 

Jess scoffs, snatching the paper out of his hand. “You know I don’t do that shit.” Folding the paper in fours, he stuffs it in his pocket and heads for the backroom. 

 

They spend another thirty minutes looking around before they start to head out. “Give us a heads up next time, I know my wife misses cooking for you.” Bill says, clapping Jess on the back.

 

“Yeah, whatever.” 

 

“And it was nice meeting you. Good to know there’s someone willing to put up with the brat here.” Bill ignores Jess’ protest.

 

Oliver shakes his hand then gives Mark a wave where he’s behind the desk. “Okay, enough. I’m gonna regret bringing you here, aren’t I?” Jess asks rhetorically, wrapping an arm around Oliver’s waist and not-so-subtly guiding him to the exit.

 

“Bye, Lil’ Jessie!” Jess flips them off at the top of the stairs, not turning around. They can hear their laughs upstairs and Jess rolls his eyes as he holds the door open.

 

“They seem nice.” Oliver comments as they head down the street.

 

“If you call me Lil’ Jessie even  _ once _ I’m breaking up with you.” Jess warns him, putting one arm around his shoulders and the other in his pocket.

 

“No, you wouldn’t.” Oliver calls his bluff.

 

“Fine,” Jess caves. “But I would take all your stupid  _ Offspring _ CDs and replace them with  _ Metallica. _ ”

 

“See, if you did that, then  _ I _ would be forced to break up with  _ you.” _

 

“We seem to be at an impasse then, Mr. Stone.”

 

“Indeed we do, Mr. Mariano.”

 

They walk in silence for a beat. “And that includes you telling anyone else about that stupid nickname.” Jess tacks on.

 

“But-”

 

“I’m serious. They’ve been calling me that since I was a kid. I hate it.”

 

“Alright, you win.” Oliver relents.

 

“So, now that that’s done, you interested in going to see that band?” Jess pulls out the flier. “The place isn’t that far from here, should only be about ten minutes on the subway.”

 

Oliver shrugs. “I got nowhere to be. I don’t want to be super late though.”

 

“We’ll be in and out. Hour, two tops. Promise.”

 

“Okay.” He’s a little unsure, but Jess really seems to want to go and he’s had such a rough time lately, Oliver doesn’t have the heart to turn him down on this. Plus, it’s just listening to some music, how bad could it be?

 

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

The answer is very bad. See, he thought they were saying  _ farm _ party, not pharm party. Turns out the entrance fee isn't money, but pills that they put in a fish bowl that will get passed around later. At his worried look, Jess assures him afterwards that it’s an optional thing and that he never takes part in it, although he adds on that majority of the pills in the bowl are just advil and the like.

 

And the place is flat out sketchy. It's some old abandoned pool that used to be the city's until funding got cut years ago. They had to climb a fence and then shimmy their way in through a chained door.

 

Oliver sticks close as they walk around waiting for a band to set up in the drained pool, Jess making small talk with guys he used to know when he lived in the city. When he parts with them, he leads him over to a keg, grabbing two solo cups. Oliver tries to say no as they walk off, but Jess has him take it anyway, subtly whispering that he doesn't need to drink it, but it would look weird if he wasn't at least holding one. When Jess finishes his, he'll just swap with him.

 

Oliver steadily gets more and more anxious as time passes and the band they’ve been waiting for still hasn’t gone on. In the past hour and a half that they’ve waited, Jess has already finished both his own beer and Oliver’s, and is currently working on his third. Debating what to do, he asks for where the bathroom is and Jess points him in the right direction, asking if he wants him to go with him.

 

“No, it’s fine.” He says a little too quickly, but Jess doesn’t seem to notice as he shrugs.

 

“Alright, I’ll just be hanging around here.” Oliver tries not to grimace at the taste of cheap beer when Jess gives him a quick kiss.

 

Finding what passes as the bathroom, he locks the door and starts to pace. Holding his phone in his hand, he weighs his options. He could do nothing, go back out there, and wait for the band to play so they can leave, but the problem is he doesn’t know  _ when _ they’re going to play. A flier matching the one Jess got is hanging on the wall and doesn’t have any times, or even how many bands are here tonight. For all he knows, it could be hours before they play. On the other hand, he could just ask Jess if they can go now, but the whole reason they came was to hear this stupid band. Plus Jess really seems to be enjoying himself, although that might have something to do with the free beer. He can’t leave by himself, what if something happened to Jess and he wasn’t there, or something happened to  _ him _ while he was trying to find his way back to the subway then the bus station? When they first met, Jess had joked about not missing being mugged from walking alone at night, but now that Oliver is here he’s starting to think that he wasn’t really joking.

 

The last option, the one that’s both the most and least appealing, is to call someone. Both him and Jess would be in major trouble, but at least then they would have a guaranteed out in a few hours. Sure, there’s a chance that the band that they’ve been waiting for could play soon, leading to them leaving soon and having them get in trouble for nothing, but at this rate that’s looking less and less likely. Jess would be pissed at him for sure, but he’d get over it after he calms down and Oliver explains his side of things. 

 

Right?

 

Biting his nails, he flips his phone open and shut as he tries to think of anything else, but nothing else comes to mind. Turning his phone back on, he’s bombarded with missed calls from Lorelai and Luke. Mouth dry, he swallows as he hits the redial button. After a few short rings, a panicked voice answers. 

 

“Lorelai? I need you to come pick us up.” He whispers, hoping he made the right choice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the pharm party is based off an episode of The Fosters, and if anyone is curious the band that they're waiting to hear is Someone's Little Sister from that same episode.


	3. Run Little Lost Boy, From all of Reality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "As we soared above the town that never loved me  
> I realized I finally had a family  
> Soon enough we reached Neverland  
> Peacefully my feet hit the sand  
> And ever since that day"  
> -Lost Boy, Ruth B.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title from Lost Boy by Ruth B.
> 
> I had so much fun writing this chapter, it's probably one of my favorite ones so far. Hope everyone else enjoys it as much as I do.

Lorelai scrambles for a pen and paper, motioning to Luke for something. He silently grabs a pen and scrap of paper, handing it to her. Copying down the address as Oliver reads it out to her, she repeats back to him to make sure it’s right. “Alright, I got it. I’ll be there as soon as I can, be careful. This is my cell, so call me on this if anything changes. I’ll see you soon, bye.” Hanging up, she grabs her purse off the side table, digging through it to make sure she has her wallet and keys.

 

“What’s going on? Where are they?” Luke frantically asks.

 

“That was Oliver. They’re at some party in New York and he’s starting to get worried.”

 

“A  _ party?! _ What party?! Is Jess okay?”

 

“I’m not sure, Oliver just said something about how they went to see some band and that he didn’t know there’d be drugs and alcohol there, and he wants someone to come get them. Look, we’ll get the whole story later, but I really need to get going, it’s a two hour drive to New York.” She leaves out the part about how Jess has been drinking, figuring she’ll fill him in more when she gets back. 

 

“Okay, let’s go.”

 

Lorelai sighs. How can she word it without Luke flying off the handle? “No, Luke. I think you should stay here.” She decides to say bluntly. It hurts to even suggest it, and she knows if the situations were reversed she would be just as opposed, but with Luke’s temper, there’s no way he could get Jess to agree to come back without getting both of them saying things they’ll later regret.

 

He scoffs. “No way. Jess is getting  _ high _ or  _ drunk, _ or  _ both _ right this second, and you want me to  _ stay here?!” _

 

“Which is exactly why you should stay here!” Lorelai says firmly. “You’re mad and upset-”

 

“Hell yeah I am!”

 

“-which will only make the problem worse.  _ I  _ will go get them, bring them both home, while you take the time to calm down so you don’t murder him on the spot for pulling such a stupid stunt. You once said between the two of us, I’m the calm one. Now are we going to keep arguing about this or are you going to let me go?”

 

Luke huffs, looking like he’s going to fight her more on this, but then he shakes his head. “Son of a bitch… Fine. Have it your way. But the second he gets back,”

 

“I’ll call you and let you tear him a new one.”

 

Luke nods, still fuming. “I’ll be at the diner, just call me on that phone and I’ll meet you here.”

 

000000000000000000000

 

Lorelai leaves the radio off as she speeds west on interstate 84, before exiting and heading south for an hour. As she merges onto interstate 95, her phone starts to ring, making her jump in surprise. She scrambles for it, thinking it might be Oliver with some update. Without glancing at the caller ID, she flips it open and wedges it between her shoulder and chin.

 

“Hello?”

 

There’s sniffling on the other line. _ “Mom?” _

 

“Rory?” She asks in shock, adjusting to phone so she’s holding it in one hand. Last she heard, Rory’s supposed to be at dinner with Dean. She had to talk her daughter into going since she was worried about Jess being MIA. “Sweetie, what’s wrong? Is everything okay?” Now she’s having flashbacks to Rory’s accident last year.

 

_ “Everything’s,” _ She pauses to sniff.  _ “Everything’s fine. Can you just- can you pick me up please? I’m at Paris’ and her car is in the shop. I just really wanna come home.” _

 

“Oh, honey, you have no idea how much I wish I could, but I’m halfway to New York right now to get your br- get Jess. I thought you were with Dean, can’t he give you a ride?” God, one week of Jess living under her roof and she’s already seeing him as her own. 

 

Rory either missed her slip up, or is just choosing to ignore it for the time being. She speaks so quietly, Lorelai having to strain to hear her over the phone.  _ “We broke up. He offered to drive me back, but we had just had a huge fight and things were so awkward, I didn’t wanna be stuck in a car with him for forty minutes.” _

 

These things really come all at once, don’t they? “Baby, I’m so sorry, I really wish I could be there for you.” Lorelai thinks for a moment. “How about this, Luke is still in Stars Hollow, do you want me to call him to bring you home?”

 

There’s a pause as Rory thinks about it. In the background, Lorelai hears Paris say it’s all up to Rory, she’s okay with her staying or going.  _ “Um, if you’re sure he won’t mind. I know he’s really upset about Jess.” _

 

“Sweetie, you’ll be a breath of fresh air for him. Sit tight, I’ll call him right now for you.”

 

_ “Thank you, Mom.” _ Rory sounds relieved.

 

“It’s no problem at all. I love you.”

 

_ “Love you too.” _

 

After Rory hangs up, Lorelai quickly hits her third speed dial, it barely getting the chance to ring before Luke picks up.  _ “Lorelai? Did you hear from them?” _

 

“No, nothing, and I’m still about fifty minutes out. I just have a really big favor I need you to do for me.”

 

_ “Yeah, of course, what is it?” _

 

“I just got a call from Rory, her and Dean broke up tonight. She’s at a friend’s in Hartford and needs someone to go get her.”

 

Luke doesn’t hesitate.  _ “Oh, jeez. Yeah, of course I’ll go get her. What’s the address?” _

 

Luckily Lorelai had made sure to memorize Paris’ address a long time ago. “Hey, listen, Luke. Thank you so much for doing this for me, especially after I pretty much banned you from coming to get Jess.”

 

Luke sighs.  _ “I’ll admit, I was pretty mad at first, but after an hour of pacing and another thirty minutes to calm down, I figured you’re probably right. I’m so pissed at that kid for pulling something like this, the second I saw him we’d just be screaming at each other the whole time. Plus, you know I’d do anything for Rory.” _

 

“Yeah, I know, but still. Thank you for being there for her. I know I can always count on you to take care of her.”

 

_ “I, um, I should let you get back to driving, and I need to get going now myself…” _

 

“Yeah, sure. Of course. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

 

_ “Bye.” _

 

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Luke is glad for the distraction if he’s being honest. Ever since he got that call this morning from Jess’ school saying he’s missed his first two classes, he’s been trying to not jump to the wrong conclusions. Maybe he’s just sick, and Lorelai forgot to call the school to let them know. A knot forming in his stomach, he calls her to check to see if that’s the case. Rory answered, again easy enough explanation for that if Jess is sick and Lorelai’s busy with Jess, but when he asked if he could talk to Lorelai, she said that her mom had left for work a few hours ago. Keeping his voice even so as not to alarm her, he checks if maybe Jess is there anyway, she tells him he left for school around the same time her mom left. Now she’s starting to get worried, having put the pieces together herself. Jess was in a bad mood this morning and seemed a little flighty.

 

After assuring her that it’s probably nothing, just Jess off reading somewhere quiet like the bridge, he gets off the phone with her and starts to do some searching of his own. He checks all of the kid’s usual haunts, but he’s missing from all of them. He pokes his head in the bookstore real quick, checking all the nooks and crannies in case Jess is camped out on the floor reading, but still nothing. Finally caving, he starts asking around, starting with Andrew in case Jess had been in earlier (he hadn’t) all the way to stooping as low as asking Taylor, knowing the town selectman always keeps an untrustworthy eye on the teen (he hadn’t seen the kid either). When that turned up nothing, he took to the phones, calling Lorelai first who was shocked by the news and came as soon as she could.

 

Using Lorelai’s as a homebase, the two spent all day trying to figure out where he went until they got word that someone had spotted Jess getting on a bus heading for Hartford this morning. Knowing all the calls to Jess’ phone are going straight to voicemail, they both try calling Oliver since that’s the only person Jess would go to in Hartford, but all of his calls ring out so they both try leaving messages. Eventually, even his calls go straight to voicemail, pretty much confirming their theory that Jess is with him.

 

It wasn’t until around five-thirty that Lorelai got the call from Oliver, begging her to come get them.

 

Double checking the address on the notepad with the mansion in front of him, he doesn’t even get the truck turned off fully before Rory comes out to meet him with a blond girl he vaguely recognizes. Rory hugs her friend and the two have a small conversation before Rory nods and gives her a weak smile, climbing into the truck. She pulls the end of her nice dress in before closing the door, giving her friend one final wave. Forget about killing Jess, Dean just rose to the top of his shit list now.

 

“Thank you for coming to get me, Luke.”

 

Pulling out onto the street, he gives her a reassuring smile, noting the last of her mascara left on her eyes, most likely having washed her face while at her friend’s place. “Like I told Lorelai, it’s no problem. Nothing involving you will ever be a chore. You can, uh, turn the radio to whatever station you want.” Normally he doesn’t let anyone mess with his radio, but in this instance he figures she deserves it.

 

Knowing how big of a gesture that is coming from him, she nods. “Thanks.” Keeping the volume low, she goes through the stations until she comes across something she likes, some light rock he’s heard Lane try and get Jess to listen to, without much luck.

 

They sit in a comfortable silence, the radio being the only noise between them, for the next twenty minutes. Rory keeps fiddling with the small clutch in her lap, little sniffs coming from her every now and again.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asks softly.

 

“If it’s alright with you, I’d rather wait for my mom.” She admits. “Sorry.”

 

“No, I understand. It’s all up to you. I just wanted you to know, if you did want to talk, I’ve been told I can be a good listener.” It’s the talking part that he’s crap at, he leaves out.

 

They make it back to the diner in record time, where he lets her in, the place having been closed since this morning. Turning the lights on, she heads to the counter and takes a seat, setting her bag on the stool next to her. Without a word, he heads to the back and comes back with a batch of brownies he had made, setting it in front of her. Getting two plates out, he serves some for the both of them.

 

She sits there with a bemused expression, watching him take a bite. “What?” He asks after he swallows.

 

She shakes her head, lifting her fork and poking at the brownie. “Nothing, I’ve just never seen you eat anything remotely sugary before. It’s like watching the Dalai Lama eat a steak.”

 

“Then I guess it’ll just be something between the two of us. I can trust you to keep my secret, right?” He asks her in a pseudo seriousness.

 

She nods, playing along. “Oh, of course.” A smile breaks across her face, relaxing him. She’s smiling, so that has to be a good sign right?

 

They continue eating in silence until Luke gets an idea. “Have you ever played gin before?” She shakes her head. Reaching under the counter, he pulls out the deck he had taken from Jess a few weeks ago and never got around to taking back up to the apartment. He had tried to start a poker ring with the priest, the rabbi, and Babette until the four of them had been caught by Taylor. Luke had been more amused then anything, but still took the deck so Taylor would stop ranting at him about this being a slippery slope to Jess becoming a criminal mastermind.

 

Shuffling the cards, he starts to deal out, explaining the rules as he does so. Rory puts their dirty dishes to the side, listening intently and asking a question when needed. It takes a few rounds until Rory gets the hang of it, but once she does she could take him for all he’s worth.

 

“Dean proposed.” She says so softly he wasn’t sure if he heard her right.

 

Head shooting up, he forgets all about the game they’re playing. “What?! Proposed?! You two are barely eighteen, you’re way too young for that stuff.”

 

She continues to stare at her cards. “I know. And that’s what I told him. Then we got in this awful fight in the middle of the restaurant where he wanted to know if I ever  _ would _ want to marry him… and I hesitated. After that we paid our bill and I asked him to drop me off at Paris’.”

 

Luke is stunned. This is just like that fiasco last year when they broke up. The worst part is, this time he has two teens invested in this. Dean and Jess have become friends these past nine months, good friends at that. But he knows Jess and Rory are best friends, with a sibling-like bond at this point. Hell, those two are closer than him and Liz have ever been. With any luck, Jess won’t be stuck having to choose sides, because whichever side he chose, he’d still be losing someone.

 

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Judging by the dull thud of music she hears, Lorelai is guessing she’s at the right place. Pulling her jacket close to fight the cold, she finds herself irritated by the small flakes of snow that start to fall. Snow is supposed to mean happy things. All good things happen to her when it snows, and this is definitely  _ not _ a good thing. God, she is going to  _ murder _ that little punk. The whole drive here, she felt her temper slowly start to rise as she thought more and more on how  _ stupid _ Jess is being. Sure, she wasn’t a saint at his age, and yes, it’d be a little hypocritical of her to get on him about the underage drinking when she had done the same, but the  _ drugs?! _ Even she had enough sense to stay away from the parties that were known to have drugs at them. And according to Oliver, he had known  _ exactly _ what he was getting the two of them into.

 

Feeling like a teenager again, she finally manages to get on the other side of the fence and marches straight for the door, not sparing the guy stuck manning the entrance a glance.

 

“Hey, you can’t just come in here!” He tries to block her way.

 

Taking a centering breath, she glares at the kid. And that’s exactly what he is. He couldn’t be much older than Rory or Jess. “Kid, I  _ very _ strongly suggest you step aside right this second, because at this moment, you are the only thing standing between me and my son, and let me tell you my friend, that is not a place you want to be. So what’s it gonna be?” He swallows, eyes darting around before he moves out of her way without making eye contact. “Good choice.”

 

Pushing her way through the crowd, she scans around trying to find the two teens she came for. Hearing her name, she turns to find Oliver coming towards her. “Thank you for coming. I’m so sorry I was ignoring your calls, I just thought-”

 

“Nevermind that, where’s Jess?”

 

“This way.” She follows him through the throng of people, straining to hear him over the band playing. “I have to warn you though, he’s been drinking the whole time. I tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t listen.”

 

She inwardly sighs, of course he has. He’s really invested in his Robert Downey Jr. impression, isn’t he? Spotting him a few paces away, she rushes past Oliver and plucks the red solo cup straight out of his hand and passes it to a random passerby.

 

“Hey! I wasn’t fin’shed-” He spins around, barely able to keep his footing.

 

“Oh, yes you were. C’mon, Jess, party’s over, time to go home.”

 

Ignoring her, he turns his glare behind her to Oliver. “You  _ called _ Lorelai?! Why th’ hell did you call ‘er?!” He snarls, some of his words slurring while he over enunciates others.

 

Oliver’s eyes widen as he looks between Jess and Lorelai. “I, um, I didn’t know what to- you were-” He stutters.

 

“Hey!” She gets Jess’ attention. “Leave him alone! He did the right thing calling me, now move! We’re leaving!” Not giving him a choice, she grabs his arm and forcibly drags him to the exit. He fights her at first, trying to shrug his arm free to no avail.

 

She lets him go as soon as they get to the car. “‘m not going back!”

 

“Oliver, get in the car please.” She makes it an order, not a request.

 

“But-”

 

“Now. Don’t think you’re not busted for this little trip either.” All of this could have been avoided had he answered their calls from the start.

 

Pulling at the sleeve of his jacket, he looks like he wants to fight more before nodding and getting in the front seat.

 

Turning her attention back to Jess, she levels him with a glare that even gets him to flinch for a second before his face hardens again. “You are going home whether you like it or not.  _ This,” _ She gestures to all around them. “This is you going  _ way _ too far here. You could have gotten yourself  _ killed. _ Do you understand that? There were drugs in there!”

 

“Please, I’ve been to a thous’nd parties like this. I come for th’ music and free beer, that’s it. I never do any of the shit they hand out. I know how to handle myself!”

 

“Oh, well, round of applause to you!” She claps sarcastically. “And at any point during your self destructive path did you even think about the possibility that  _ Oliver _ could get hurt, or worse,  _ killed? _ Because news flash, he’s  _ never been _ to a thing like this!”

 

Jess scoffs. “I was watching out f’r him the whole time.”

 

Lorelai sputters in disbelief. “Kid, you’re so wasted right now you can barely see straight, let alone watch out for another person.”

 

Jess growls. “God, why won’t you two leave me alone about th’t?! I’m fine!”

 

“No, you’re not!” She finally snaps. “Now get your fucking ass in the car, because I just drove over two hours so I can bring home two teens and I’m not leaving until they are  _ both _ in the car!”

 

Not bothering to hide his shock, Jess stares her down until he caves, huffing as he climbs into the backseat and slams the door shut behind him.

 

Hanging her head, Lorelai takes a moment to herself before getting in the driver's seat and starting the jeep up, putting the heaters to full blast.

 

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The entire drive is a tense, silent affair. Lorelai keeps glancing in the mirror, watching Jess as he keeps his arms crossed the whole time with his eyes closed, pretending to sleep. Oliver on the other hand is a nervous wreck, wringing his hands and staring out the window.

 

It's almost eleven by the time they pull up to the bus station in Hartford where Oliver had parked his car.

 

“You, front seat.” She barks at Jess.

 

“No thanks, I'm good right here.” He says as he leans his head against the glass, not opening his eyes.

 

“That wasn't a suggestion. Move your butt.” With a sigh, he does as she said, unclipping his seatbelt. Getting out herself, she walks Oliver to his car. “Say goodnight, Gracie.” She tells Jess.

 

“Whatever.” He rolls his eyes, not looking at either of them.

 

“I'm sorry.” Oliver blurts out, causing Jess to freeze with his hand on the door handle.

 

“Well, you have a funny way of showing it.” He says over his shoulder.

 

“I didn't know what else to do, I was scared-”

 

“So you should have told me!” Jess snaps, spinning around. “Had you told me you were uncomfortable I would have had us leave right then and there! But no! You went behind my back and called Lorelai! That's all everyone seems to be doing lately is go behind my back!”

 

“I'm sorry! I don't know what else I can say!” Tears start to form in Oliver's eyes.

 

“Jess, get in the car now!” Lorelai separates the two before Jess says something he can’t take back later. With a grunt, he slams the door shut. Again. She sighs, turning back to Oliver. “Just give him some time. And don’t take anything he’s saying to heart. His fight is with me and Luke,  _ not _ you. I want to make sure you know that.”

 

“I know.” Oliver fights to keep his tears at bay, unlocking his trunk to hand Lorelai Jess’ backpack.

 

“Do you? Because I really want to make sure you do.”

 

“I  _ do.” _ He stresses. His shoulders slump. “Sorry. Here, I’m tired and want to get home.”

 

She takes the bag, holding the strap tighter than necessary. “Okay. And you’re okay to drive? I know you didn’t drink, but if you’re too tired-”

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He cuts her off. “It’s not that far, I’ll be fine.”

 

She watches him walk to the driver’s side, debating what to say next. “I’m sorry.” She finally settles on.

 

“Me too.” He sighs, getting in and driving off.

 

Knowing she needs to get going, she forces her feet to move and throws Jess’ bag in the back seat. Climbing in herself, she starts the jeep up. “You really screwed up big time here, kid.” 

 

She’s not expecting a response, which is why she’s shocked to hear a quiet, “I know.” From Jess’ side of the car.

 

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Ten minutes into the drive and the guilt is eating away at her. In the Luke and Lorelai partnership, she’s the calm one. The head to Luke’s heart. And there she went, losing her cool and swearing at Jess like she had. Sure, he was being a stubborn little punk about getting in the car, but she should have kept her patients. She still can’t get that wide eyed look of almost panic on his face when she spoke to him like that. Had Liz been like that?

 

“I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you back in New York. I lost my temper and I shouldn’t have spoke to you like that. It was wrong of me.”

 

Jess keeps his eyes closed as he leans his head against the window. “Whatever.” His voice is muffled.

 

God, that is quickly becoming her least favorite word. “No, it’s not whatever. I’m trying to explain my side of things. No one knew where you were all day, Luke and I had been terrified. Then to get that call that you were at a party, with drugs and alcohol, I got even more scared if that were possible.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, we could’ve gotten hurt. You’ve given me this speech already, in case you’ve forgotten.”

 

“Do not interrupt me. And yes, you guys could have, but you also could have been arrested. You’re over eighteen, you would’ve been tried as an adult. I know you don’t care about your future, you’ve made that very clear tonight, but Oliver does. If he has a record, then it’s goodbye to all those plans he has.”

 

“I know! Okay! I know!” Jess head shoots up, glaring at Lorelai. “Now lay off me about it!”

 

“No! I will not  _ lay off _ it! This is not just you skipping as you hang out at Dean’s, this is  _ serious-” _

 

“Pull over!” 

 

“No, you aren’t getting out of this that easily!”

 

“Damn it, Lorelai, stop now!”

 

Slamming the brakes, Jess leaps out of the car before it even makes it to a completely stop, leaning against a tree as he starts to retch. 

 

“Great. Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve left the drunk stage and are now entering the vomit portion of the evening.” She says to herself. Checking to make sure no cars are coming, she jumps out and runs over to his side. “It’s okay, just let it out.” She rubs his back. “You’re okay.” Jess gasps and coughs, only dry heaving now. Taking him by the shoulders, she leads him away from the putrid smell. “That’s it, just take a minute to catch your breath. You’re all better now.”

 

“No, I-I’m n-not!” He lets out between gasps. “I f-fucked everything u-up.  _ Again! _ Why-why do I  _ always-!” _ He crumbles to his knees, Lorelai coming with him.

 

“Hey, hey! You didn’t do anything that can’t be fixed.”

 

“No! It’s ruined! It’s a-all  _ ruined!” _ He sobs. “Oliver p-probably hates me now! A-and L-lukes gonna realize that I-I’m not worth all the ha-hassle ‘nd s-send me b-back! I don’t wanna go back! I don’t, I don’t, I don’t…” His words get swallowed up by the tears, making him nearly impossible to understand now.

 

Lorelai holds him tight, shushing him. “Slow down, sweetie, nothing is ruined. Nobody hates you, least of all Oliver, and I can  _ promise _ you, Luke is  _ not _ sending you anywhere. Deep breaths now, or you’ll make yourself sick again.” She runs a hand through his hair, hoping to help calm him down. “You think  _ you’re  _ a hassle, at least you didn’t get pregnant at sixteen.” She jokes.

 

Jess snorts between shaky breaths. “I think Liz would have a lot of explaining to do if I did.” He croaks.

 

Now that he’s calmed down some, shivers start to wrack his small frame, only having a thin jacket to protect him from the snow. Shrugging off her own black peacoat, she wraps it around his shoulders. Now that she gets a better look at him, she notices he looks thinner. With shame, she realizes in the hectic week that she’s had, she hasn’t been watching his eating habits very closely, or lack thereof apparently. He also needs a haircut, she notes as it lays flat on his head, in his eyes and curls poking out at weird angles. Brushing his hair out of his face, she gives him a smile. “When was the last time you ate?”

 

He shrugs, sniffing and wiping the last of the moisture from his eyes. “Ten thirty or eleven, I think. We each had a slice of pizza.”

 

“All that drinking on an empty stomach, it’s a wonder you were able to keep it all down as long as you did.” She rubs her hands up and down his arms, trying to warm him up faster. “How about this, I happen to know there’s an IHOP a few miles down the road, why don’t we go grab a bite to eat, okay?” He nods, bleary eyed. “Okay. Up you get.” She drops a quick kiss on the top of his head before helping him to his feet, leading him to the jeep.

 

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She decides to give him a break on the lecturing as they eat. With how drained he looks, he probably wouldn’t remember most of it anyway. Besides, he seems to have done enough beating himself up already tonight. He barely speaks, only nodding as he listens to her go on about an extremely demanding guest she had at the Inn and other mindless topics to fill the silence. He pauses eating halfway through, but seems to quickly catch on that they aren’t leaving until he finishes his small plate of pancakes he ordered and the side of eggs Lorelai had pushed his way.

 

He rolls his eyes as he starts in on the plate of eggs. “You’ve been spending too much time with Luke.” He mutters.

 

She smiles. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just think there’s something wrong with this picture when my coat, which for the record is a woman’s small, seems to fit you that well.”

 

He scoffs, focusing back on his eggs without comment.

 

Jess sleeps the rest of the drive back to Stars Hollow. She regrets having to wake him up after they park, not able to carry him in unless he wants to be dropped and awoken with a bump to the head.

 

“We’re here, kiddo.” She shakes him gently, earning a groan from him. “I know, but you should sleep lying down. Trust me, your neck will thank me later.”

 

Jess stretches, rubbing his eyes. “I feel gross.”

 

“I bet, why don’t you go take a quick shower and get changed into something more comfortable. I’ll be right in.”

 

He hesitates. “You’re gonna call Luke, aren’t you.” He doesn’t even bother phrasing it as a question.

 

“He’s been worried. I told him I would.”

 

Jess nods, starting his slow, sloth-like movements out of the car. “Oh, and take something for your head, you’ll thank me for that in the morning too!” He gives a thumbs up, quietly shutting the door.

 

Once he’s in the house, she gives Luke a quick call like promised. She waits for him on the porch steps, different coat on since Jess took her other one with him by mistake. Luke shows up in record time in his truck, Rory in the passenger seat. Her daughter jumps out wearing what looks like Jess’ clothes, hair up in a messy bun. Luke exits slower, her dress folded in his hands.

 

“Mom!”

 

“Hey, sweet cheeks, how are you?” She rises to meet her, oofing as Rory tackles her in a hug. At least this time they stay standing, unlike that graceful moment they had at the hospital back in September.

 

“A little better. Luke taught me how to play gin. Is Jess okay? Is he here?”

 

“Jess is fine. He’s upstairs taking a shower.”

 

Rory visible relaxes. “That’s good, I was really worried. I’m gonna go change into something that actually fits.” She grabs her dress from Luke. “Thanks again for coming to get me and keeping me company, Luke.”

 

He sticks his hands in his pockets, giving her a smile. “Like I said, it was no problem.”

 

Rory turns back to Lorelai, dropping her voice. “Hey, Mom, when you’re done, think you can come to my room for a bit so we can talk? I don’t really want to be alone.”

 

Lorelai kisses her forehead. “Of course, hon. I’ll just be a few minutes.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

The two adults sit on the steps after she leaves, both sighing in exhaustion.

 

“So, you taught Rory to play gin? What’s next, taking her to Vegas?” Lorelai jokes.

 

Luke leans back. “She was pretty upset, so I figured I’d teach her something to keep her mind off things until you got here. God, teenage girls have it rough. Did you know that?”

 

“I may have heard a rumor or two alluding to such a thing. Thanks for that, by the way.”

 

Luke waves her off. “Ah, it was nothing. It was a nice change of pace. Hey, if you’re ever interested, we could switch.”

 

Lorelai lets out a laugh. “Oh, if you think you wait a long time for the bathroom  _ now, _ just wait until you have to share one with a girl. You’d have better luck taking your showers at night.”

 

Luke stretches his legs out with a chuckle of his own. “Yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. How, um, how is Jess? Really?”

 

Lorelai sighs, mirror his position. “No offence, but your sister really did a number on that kid.”

 

Luke’s shoulders drop. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

 

“That kid has abandonment issues out the wazoo. He collapsed into drunken sobs, petrified you’re going to send him away for this. I don’t blame him, last time he acted out-”

 

“Liz sent him here.” Luke finishes, shaking his head. “Jeez, just when I thought we’d uncovered all the damage she’s done, something else pops up.”

 

“Like a demented game of whack-a-mole.” Lorelai sneers. Seriously, how could anyone let this woman raise a kid. She’s surprised Jess hasn’t turned out worse then he is.

 

“Yeah, well, I’m starting to feel a lot like the mole.”

 

Lorelai pats him on the shoulder. “I better get in. I just thought I’d give you a little bit of a head’s up on what you’re walking into.”

 

“Right, thanks.”

 

“Oh, and Luke?” Lorelai pauses at the door, waiting for him to turn around. “Go easy on him. I was already pretty firm with him about the whole running away and drinking thing. I think right now all he needs is someone to listen.”

 

He nods. “I will.”

 

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Luke stays out on the porch for a few minutes, spending the time alone to gather his thoughts. He shouldn’t have let it get this far. This is all his fault, all of it.

 

With a deep breath, he gets to his feet and heads inside, all of the interior dark. Peeking down the hall to the kitchen, he can see a faint light on under Rory’s door and the sound of soft sobs and Lorelai whispering that it’ll get better.

 

Knowing he has his own teen to worry about, Luke creeps into the living room where Jess is lying on the couch, hair still damp.

 

“I know you’re there.” Jess says with his face buried in his pillow. With a groan, he lifts his head a little and squints. “Go on, get it over with already an’ tell me which relative I barely know you’re gonna ship me off to next. Your Cousin Jack who has the triplets? Or maybe it’ll be the aunt with the stupid parrot.”

 

Luke sits on the edge of the coffee table so Jess doesn’t have to crane his neck. “Even you don’t deserve the wrath of three crying babies or Petey the Parrot. The only place you’re going is back home with me tomorrow. I think you’ve done enough couch surfing for now, plus I’m sure Lorelai would like her living room back.”

 

“Really? I can-” He swallows. “You still want my sorry ass around? Even after all those things I said?”

 

“Still want- Yes, of course I do. That whole fight was my fault, I made a bad choice. I should have thought about how me  _ not _ telling you would affect you too.” Jeez, Lorelai wasn’t kidding about the abandonment issues.

 

“So, you…” He trails off, losing his nerve.

 

“I what?” Luke gently urges him on, running a hand up and down his arm.

 

“You don’t… hate me? For all the yelling an’ saying you’re not my father?”

 

God, he thought he  _ hated _ him? “Jess, buddy, I could  _ never _ hate you, not ever. You hear me? And, I know. I know I’m not your father-”

 

“Maybe not, but you were the one that closed early every day for a month to teach me how to drive when I first got here, and held me all night to make sure I don’t have another panic attack, that’s way more than anything Jimmy or Liz have ever done for me.”

 

How is it that he had hurt the kid and yet he’s the one being comforted? “I should’ve fought harder.” He thinks aloud as he studies the kid in front of him.

 

“What?”

 

Luke lays his elbows on his knees, picking at his hands. “You know how after you were born and Jimmy left, your mom wasn’t handling it too well so my dad, your grandpa, let her and you stay here in Stars Hollow.”

 

Jess nods slowly, sitting up. He pulls his knees up to his chest. “Yeah, that’s why there are a ton of photos of me with you and him when I was a baby.”

 

“Well, I haven’t told anyone this, but during that time my dad was trying to get custody of you. He loved Liz, don’t get me wrong, but he knew she could barely take care of herself, let alone an infant, so he petitioned for custody. He would have won too. Everyone around here knew of Liz’s reputation, and he had a successful business, was an upstanding citizen. The perfect candidate.”

 

“What happened?”

 

Luke looks up from his hands for the first time. “He got sick. Cancer, real aggressive. They caught it late and it took him in only a month.”

 

Jess rests his head on his knees. “I’m sorry.”

 

Luke gives him a smile. “I’m just glad he got a chance to meet you. He really loved you, you know.”

 

“So, what… what do you mean you should’ve fought harder? If he went as fast as you say…”

 

“After my dad passed away, I tried to get custody in his place, but I was denied.”

 

“What? Why?”

 

Luke shrugs. “I was young. And by this point Liz had cleaned herself up again, had spoken to the courts about all these plans she had, that she was already signed up for AA and had a few meetings under her belt. The courts ate it up and ruled in her favor. Two weeks later she was in the wind, moving to New York with you. Instead of following up like I should have, I let Liz have her way. I closed the hardware store and turned it into a diner to keep me busy.”

 

Jess gnaws on his lip, staring down at Luke’s hands. “The courts were idiots.” He finally says.

 

Luke shakes his head. “No argument from me. Jess, I’m sorry I tried to keep your adoption a secret. I thought I was protecting you, but I only ended up making everything worse. From now on, I promise, no more secrets. From this moment on, we are a democracy.” Jess raises his hand. Smart ass. “Yes, the floor recognizes Jess.”

 

He yawns. “Can I put forward a motion to table this until tomorrow? I’m exhausted and a little more than hungover right now.”

 

Luke places his hand on Jess’ head, ruffling his hair. “Yeah, sure. But don’t think this means you’re getting out of your punishment. You’re gonna be grounded so long, your grandkids will still be serving out your sentence.”

 

Standing, he gets stopped by a hand grabbing his wrist. “Can you stay?” Jess asks quietly, face red. Without a word, Luke drops down onto the couch, Jess curling into his side. “I’ve missed you.”

 

Luke feels his chest swell with emotion. Holding Jess tight, he drops a kiss on top of his head. “I’ve missed you too. More than you know.”

 

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Jess falls asleep quickly, head pillowed in Luke’s lap as the man rubs circles on his head with his thumb to help keep his headache at bay. The door to Rory’s room creaks open and Luke watches from his spot on the couch as Lorelai comes tiptoeing out.

 

“Hey.” He whispers.

 

She squeaks and jumps in place, nearly falling down the stairs. “God, Luke! Warn a girl!” She stage whispers.

 

He smirks. “Sorry, I thought you saw me. So, how’s Rory?”

 

Lorelai rubs her temples. “Don’t get me started. I don’t care if he’s Jess’ friend, that kid isn’t stepping foot in here. But nevermind that, things look good for you and Jess.”

 

Luke looks down at a peaceful Jess. “Pretty sure he’s a cuddly drunk.  _ That _ will fun to inform him of in the morning.”

 

Lorelai grabs the discarded blanket from the other side of the couch without being asked, draping it over Jess. She makes sure he’s tucked in tightly, both of them suddenly realizing with a start how close their faces are. They stay like that, Luke debating what to do, when a snore from Jess seems to snap them both out of it. Next thing he knows, Lorelai’s halfway up the stairs.

 

“Night, Luke.”

 

He blinks. “Goodnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next installment will be titled If You Wanna be a Party Animal, You've Gotta Learn to Live in the Jungle and will focus on the fallout of things that happened here, from the Rory and Dean breakup to the fight Jess and Oliver had. Stay tuned.


End file.
